Adventure 0X: Not The End
by ThatTwoGuy
Summary: Set about a century after Adventure & Zero Two. This shows a changed Digital World, one deeply affected by a shady, Real World corporation and follows a new generation of chosen children as well as the actions of a corporate executive with his own agenda.
1. Prologue: Meeting

Hello all. This is my first story for this site. I do hope you like it. I will say that it'll start off a bit slow. This prologue is a bit of a political behind the scenes introduction to the world I've created, though the characters introduced in it will be important throughout the story. Oh and I haven't had time to proofread the story myself so I'm sorry if there are any glaring grammatical errors.

Also, I've added some extras at the end of the chapter which are absolutely optional, but delves deeper into the world I've created. There's also a few terms down there, though the terms introduced in this chapter are pretty self explanatory, especially for followers of the show. Each chapter will have its extra section.

Oh yeah, **I DO NOT PERSONALLY OWN THE DIGIMON ANIME.** Just wanted to make that clear. Don't wanna infringe on anybody's rights. Just want to make my own unique story involving situations and characters introduced by Toei Animation. Please **Read & Review **when you've read it. :P

* * *

**Prologue: Meeting**

September, 21X6

In the cluster of various people pacing this way and that in an overpopulated district of Odaiba, Japan, one man stood out among the rest. He wore black pants and jacket with a white sleeved shirt underneath, the usual business attire, though that alone did not set him apart. Several men and women wore similar business suits on their way to work. But this man was more casual than the rest. His tie was so loose around his neck that it looked like it might fall off at any time. His shirt was casually untucked and the first few buttons on his shirt were undone. The sun lightly shone against his blonde hair and glared off his black sunglasses as he paced down the sidewalk to work.

The man's attire was notable as he was among a very organized society. The men and women traveling these streets put on their suits every morning to walk the sidewalks to their offices in the ever growing cityscape. White collar jobs spiked in the past decades as other jobs were extinguished by more advanced and self sufficient technology. The streets were full of prim and proper black suits with the occasional alternate color suits, khakis and greys, dotting the black ocean of business people.

But this man clashed with the status quo. Many passerby's stared at this unusual man, wondering why he can be so casual walking to work. It had become very much like a tradition to these people, and this man was obviously not a follower. But instead of appearing offended by these stares, he just simply smiled at them as they passed by.

_What fools_, he thought to himself. _Like ants, now. Drones._ He looked down at his watch and realized that he was late. But this did not make him speed his pace. He was sure that the drones surrounding him would be utterly shocked if they knew this fact, though. After a few more blocks, he looked up at the towering office building in front of him. The word "DigiCorp" was displayed across the center. This was the place. He walked through the doors and made it to the elevator. The operator was surprised by the man's attire.

"Uhm, which floor, sir?" the elevator operator asked. Even he had on a black business suit; shirt tucked, tie tight around his neck.

"Top floor, please." He wrestled with his tie to take it off. Seeing the operator's tie reminded him of his own tie. He hated wearing them and hated the man who invented them. What better way to look formal than to strangle yourself with a pointless garment.

"Top... floor? I'm sorry, but not just _anybody_ is allowed up there."

"Oh! Right. Terribly sorry..." He pulled out his wallet and fumbled through it, eventually pulling out an ID card. The ID had his face, sans sunglasses, printed on one side and was decorated with a blue dragon on the other side, coiling its long tail around. No words were printed on the card.

The operator's eyes widened. "Dragon? Oh God, I'm so sorry. I didn't recognize you."

"Well, it is my first day. Shame that the last Dragon met such an unfortunate fate. I do wish I could remember his name. Not that many people will remember mine, of course."

The operator took the card and swiped it through a panel by the button board for the elevator. A green light came on, telling the operator that his card was perfectly legit, not a fake. Then the elevator started rising to the very top floor of the building. "My apologies, sir. I... I didn't know."

"No, no, it's quite alright." The Dragon gave the operator a comforting smile. "There is no need for an apology. I can't blame you for not recognizing a face you've never seen, now can I?"

"Well... Of course not." The operator did not really get thrown off by the Dragon's face, though. It was just the manner of which he presented himself. But who was he to judge? If this man was good enough to be a Sovereign, what did it matter how he dressed?

The elevator stopped and the doors slid open. "Ah, I do believe this is my stop," said the Dragon. "I shall see you soon, I'm sure." He walked out of the elevator and down the short highway to the Sovereign room at the very end. He swiped his card, opening the door, and walked through.

"You're late." The Phoenix stared him down as he entered the room. Inside the top floor room sat two men and a woman around a square table. There were panels, buttons, and keyboards on each side of the table. All but one chair was filled with a Sovereign. The empty chair belonged to the Dragon. "What kept you?" The Phoenix was the oldest among the Sovereign, appearing to be in his fifties with a bald head.

"Oh, come on," the Dragon said after glancing at his watch. "Five minutes. What could you guys have possibly gone over in five minutes?"

"Your watch must be a bit slow," the Turtle said. He was at most a decade younger than the Phoenix. "You are almost twelve minutes late, Dragon."

"You can't be late for our meetings, Dragon," Phoenix said. "And look at how you are dressed."

The Dragon sat down in his chair, propping his feet up on the table. "Why does it matter? We're just here to discuss the interests of the company. Can I not be comfortable while we do talk?"

"I don't think you are taking this seriously," said the Phoenix.

"Well, Dragon does have a point," the Tiger spoke up. She was the only female of the group. And she appeared to be closer to Dragon's age, around her early to mid thirties. "Is it really that important to dress up for our meetings?"

The Phoenix sighed. "Let's just get started with our business." He pressed a button on his side of the table. In the middle of the table, a holographic projector displayed a large sphere that appeared to be a world, but the landmasses did not resemble Earth at all. In order to see the display, Dragon pulled his feet back to the floor and sat up. "Due to our former Dragon's untimely end, we... welcome our new sovereign." He shot Dragon a simple, unemotional look. Then he pressed another button on the table and a segment of the world was highlighted blue. "Your job as Dragon is to look over the Eastern Continents, highlighted here."

"Yeah, I kind of got the memo," Dragon stated. "Not only that, but the Sovereign aren't necessarily a secret to the public. Now when do I go down there? To the Digital World, I mean."

"What?" Phoenix asked. The three other Sovereign looked a bit puzzled by his statement. "We handle everything from here in the Real World. That's what the top ten floors of this building are for. As well as several buildings in the surrounding area. Everything can be managed from right here in Odaiba."

"I'm aware. But there is nothing saying I can't go down there."

"Why would you want to?" Turtle asked. "It's a dreadful place. The digimon are savages, they are."

"I would assume you've been there yourself, Turtle?"

"Yes, unfortunately. I've been there on a couple of occasions and regretted them. Yessir. Not a pleasant place to be."

"Ever thought that maybe it is an unpleasant place because we are just not doing our jobs?" The Dragon's playful attitude seemed to be replaced by a more serious one. His face grew a bit more stern, his smile gone. "My fellow Sovereign, we cannot understand their problems if we don't go down there ourselves."

"I don't see this as a terrible idea," Tiger chimed in. She spoke very little compared to her other Sovereign in these meetings. Rather, she preferred to keep to herself more, biding her time and collecting her thoughts. She spoke only when she thought it was necessary to convey a point. "Having a representative down there would really bring a new perspective to the Sovereign."

"We have representatives down there," Phoenix said. "Hundreds of ambassadors doing their job down there as we do our job here in the Real World. We don't need to risk sending someone as important as Dragon there just so he can see what it's like to live with the savages."

"I find it a horrible idea as well," Turtle said. "But nothing says that he can't go down there. It's not like he won't have proper protection. We are all equals here. We can't limit each other, Phoenix."

"I know this," Phoenix stated. "Just letting our new Dragon know how we usually work around here. We are Sovereign, kings among the digimon. Our job is not to live with them but to rule them."

The Dragon's grin returned to his face. "You are very firm about your beliefs, Phoenix. I respect that. I truly do. And thanks for your _concern_ but I will be just fine down there. Now, how about we go on to other business that need our attention?"

"Fine with me," Turtle said, sliding his glasses further up his nose. Tiger nodded in agreement while Phoenix said nothing, waiting for the next words to come out of their new Sovereign's mouth.

"It has come to my attention that the Server region is under a bit of distress." The pointed looks of the other Sovereign and their continued silence clarified his statement. "Apparently, the last Dragon didn't do his job properly, now did he?" He clicked a few buttons on his side of the table, taking control of the holographic monitor. The blue highlighted Eastern Continents were zoomed in on, becoming the focus of the display, and black dots started appearing across the regions. "These are the areas taken over by the resistance group, Sincerity. I'm sure you've heard of them."

"Of course we have," Turtle stated. "It's obviously on our database, as you can see." He pointed to the holographic display "But... I'm wondering how you've heard of them."

"I was an agent for DigiCorp, though of course none of you would have known that." Each Sovereign had a life before becoming one of the big four. But their pasts were not normally discussed between them. When one became a Sovereign, it was accepted to leave the past behind. "I've seen the conflicts firsthand, my fellow Sovereign."

"But Sincerity is just a fringe rebel group," Turtle chimed in. "I mean, aren't they?" He turned toward Phoenix, arguably the wisest of the four.

"I wouldn't worry too much about them, Dragon," Phoenix said. "They'll be fazed out soon, you'll see. We have well over the necessary manpower to take care of this problem."

"Ah, but that is not what worries me, Phoenix," Dragon stated. "This strife is caused by negligence, people. We are not doing our jobs to keep the inhabitants of the Digital World happy. Foolish rulers plant the seeds of rebellion. Sincerity is looking for freedom, not for destruction."

"We can't please everyone," Phoenix stated. "The rebels are delusional, Dragon. They don't understand what is good for them. And they don't understand what they are fighting for. You see, for Digimon, fighting is in their very nature. It is how they mature and become stronger. They grow tired of fighting amongst themselves so they lay their sights on us. We have the power to contain these creatures and to create order in the Digital World. So, DigiCorp is their chosen enemy. And since we are run by humans, they generalize that all humans are wrong. This is why they go across the regions taking control of settlements with higher human demographics. Sincerity sees humans as evil, Dragon. Only because we are, in essence, superior."

"A little naïve, aren't we?" Dragon smirked. "Do you understand where the name _Sincerity_ comes from?"

"Sincerity is one of the eight heroic attributes," Turtle stated. "A crest. Belonging to..."

"Tachikawa Mimi," Tiger finished for him. She clicked a few buttons on her own table side keyboard. The hologram projected a four sided picture of a young brown haired youth wearing a pink hat. "The Pure and Sincere. Also of note, Inoue Miyako." She clicked another button, displaying a picture of a purple haired girl wearing a helmet beside Mimi. "Substitute carrier of the Sincerity trait during the events of the Second Conflict. Both were Digidestined, of course. But other than their status as Digidestined, I don't see why Sincerity would honor these two women."

Dragon took back control of the holographic display. He slid a portable drive into the table, pulling his own data onto the display. Walls of text appeared, whole paragraphs highlighted yellow. "This is a copy of the logs found in the DigiCorp database. Including my notes on the matter."

"You shouldn't be carrying such fragile information on your person," Phoenix stated. "That needs to stay in the database." It was against procedure to copy anything from the database. Most people have no access to the database at all. However, a Sovereign can do as he pleases with the data.

"Oh don't be a nervous ass, Phoenix. It's completely safe. I only saved what lines are highlighted. The characters themselves were not copied onto my portable drive. Just the position of the highlights." His fingers moved over the slider on the table, adjusting what the hologram displayed. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go over all this data. If you guys really want, you can just read it yourself. Anyway, according to the database, Tachikawa Mimi led a resistance group during the Digidestined's second trip to the Digital World, First Conflict, against the last Dark Master. Among the group were an Andromon, an Ogremon, several Gekomon and Otamamon as well as many others. Most of them were Digimon the Digidestined had met on their travels. Mimi was the one that brought them all together against the tyranical Dark Master. So she became a symbol for the Digimon."

"And you find a parallel between that and our situation?" Turtle asked.

"Definitely."

"Preposterous."

"Why do you say that, Phoenix?"

"You are comparing us to the Dark Masters?"

"No, _they_ are comparing us to the Dark Masters. And to be perfectly honest, my fellow Sovereign, it is not far from the truth. The Dark Masters set out to control the Digital World. Are we not doing the same?" There was silence in the room after Dragon's statement.

"If what you say is true," Phoenix said after some time, "then do you truly believe you can change that?"

"I guess I'll see when I go down there, won't I?"

Prologue End

* * *

Author's Note:

I hope you all enjoyed the start of my first fan fic on this site. The prologue was actually going to be a great deal longer, but I decided that the segments that didn't have to do with the Sovereign could be put into the first chapter instead of the prologue. If I had kept it in it would take a few days longer to finish. And it would be a huge prologue.

Anyway, I decided that after each chapter I'll put little tidbits of information and trivia so that my readers can explore the world I've created. For this one, I'll post short bios of two of the Sovereign as well as some terms that show up in the prologue and a preview for next chapter. The extras for each chapter won't necessarily be character bios, though. I have various things in mind to use for the extra segment.

**Adventure 0X Files**

**Yoshio**

The Dragon

Partners: None, though he is guarded by the Devas of the Tiger, the Dragon, and the Rabbit (not introduced yet)

Bio: Yoshio was formerly an agent for DigiCorp, working under the previous Dragon. He upheld law in the Eastern Continents, mostly on Server. He saw the revolutionary acts of Sincerety firsthand during his tours in the Digital World. Yoshio is a laid back person, preferring casual over formal, and was in the favor of the previous Dragon, who was the only Sovereign he had met before the events of _Meeting_. After the previous Dragon's death, Yoshio replaced him as the 11th Dragon Sovereign.

**Fumiko**

The Tiger

Partners: None, though she is guarded by the Devas of the Rooster, the Monkey, and the Dog (not introduced yet)

Bio: Fumiko, like the vast majority of Sovereign before her, worked for DigiCorp before becoming the 9th Tiger Sovereign. But unlike Yoshio, she was a database manager, a librarian of sorts. She started her DigiCorp career as an agent for the 10th Dragon, but saw little field assignments in the Digital World. She stayed in the Real World for the majority of her first year in the company and asked to work in the Real World full time, as a database manager. She became a chronicler of Digimon history as well as the research conducted throughout a century of Digimon-Human interaction. When the 8th Tiger resigned five years prior to the story, Fumiko was chosen due to her extensive knowledge of Digimon and her high reason.

**Terms**

Sovereign – The Sovereign is currently the name given to the four individuals who are at the top of DigiCorp and control the different regions of the Digital World. Originally, the term described the four Harmonious Ones, powerful Digimon that ruled over the Digital World and kept peace. Sometime after the Second Conflict, the original Sovereign disappeared. Human representatives of DigiCorp became the new Sovereign, seeking to keep the order in the Digital World during the chaos that followed the originals' disappearance.

DigiCorp – A mega corporation that rose up from a Digital World research company in Japan. The corporation now runs the Digital World, foreign affairs between the two worlds, as well as catching illegal Digimon citizens of the Real World. The head of the corporation are the four Sovereign who each control a separate region of the Digital World.

Conflicts – This is a general term for the Real-Digital World Conflicts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The First Conflict involved Myotismon's attempts to rule the Real World as well as the battle for the worlds seen in the sky of the Real World between the Digidestined and Apocalymon. The Second Conflict was more spread out across the world, as an outbreak of Digimon appeared into the Digital World. Revealed to be masterminded by a man named Oikawa.

Agents - Members of DigiCorp that usually work field duty in the Digital World. Agents have a variety of jobs to do, though the most well known are the Agents that keep peace between the humans and digimon in the Digital World and enforce the laws. If a conflict rises up in any of the regions, the Agents try to get the situation under control in any way possible.

Sincerity - One of the eight crests, belonging to Tachikawa Mimi of the original Digidestined. Sincerity is also the name of a resistance movement in the Digital World, mostly active in the Eastern Continent of Server.

(Other terms from the Prologue may be added later if I come across them. However, for the most part terms will be posted on the chapter they appear in.)

* * *

Chapter 1 Preview: A group of Digimon sneak away to the Real World to escape the Digital World and find partners. Backed by the legends of the Digidestined, Digimon dream of having partners of their very own. Meanwhile, Yoshio, The Dragon, ventures to the Digital World...

(Eh sorry that the Preview sounds pretty vague. Don't wanna reveal too much when almost nothing has been revealed yet. But next chapter will introduce the new human children)

_Update 2-24-10_: Fixed some minor grammatical and spelling errors and cleaned up a bit of the narrative. If anyone finds any more glaring errors, though, feel free to let me know. Also added a few terms.


	2. Chapter One: Tomorrow

I'm back, my readers (assuming people are reading this X.x).

Finally, we shall meet the new digidestined in the story. And this chapter is a mite longer than the prologue by just a couple thousand words :P. Hope you enjoy.** Read & Review!**

And I still don't own digimon, by the way. Just making sure you know that

_Update 4-20-10: Noticed due to a review that I actually skipped over a bit of descriptions for characters, namely Pence, Shou, and Tatsuya. So I've added minor descriptions as well as fixed a couple typos. Including one where it says Pence is fixing a game console with his "toys." O.o. Was supposed to read "tools" not "toys."_

_Update 5-21-10: I just noticed that my line breaks haven't been uploading over from open office to this site. Wth... Sorry for any previous readers who may have found no separation between different segments of the chapters to be confusing. I've added the line breaks to this chapter and the next one. _

* * *

**Chapter One: Tomorrow**

October, 21X6

The Ueda family, consisting of just a father and son, have been living without power for the past month. In a world run by corporate business, the dad struggles to support his twelve year old son while living in a slum neighborhood in Hikarigaoka. Sometime between losing his last job and obtaining a new one the month before, he had run out of money for the bills and his apartment's power was shut down.

He could easily live without power for months as long as he had food. But he worried about his son, Shou, who was all alone in the powerless apartment after he came back from school. His son was usually asleep by the time he came home from work. And it would take some time to get a stable money supply to not only continue paying the bills again, but to pay for what he owed for skipping out on the bills.

What the dad did not know, however, was that Shou lived comfortably while he was away.

Right after coming home from school, Shou was sitting on the couch watching TV with his best friend, Akira. The show on at the moment did not really matter. The friends were not paying much attention to it. They were just happy to be spending time together.

"So... How was school?" Akira asked, nuzzling around to make himself comfortable on the couch.

"It was alright, I guess. Anything interesting come on TV while I was away?" Shou was about medium height for a 12 year old and had light blonde hair, which looked almost white.

"Not really. There was a news story on the Digital World, though."

"Oh really?" When Shou asked this, he noticed Akira's ears perked downward, demonstrating that something was bothering his friend. "Do you miss it there?"

"No.... Well I miss some of my friends. But not the place."

Shou leaned his head down, looking at the dirty floor. "Yeah... You did grow up there. I'd feel the same way. Well what was the news story about?"

Akira slowly perked his ears up again. He was gradually getting over his former emotional snag. "I think some more digimon crossed over to the Human World."

"Oh really?" Shou looked back up at his friend.

"Oh yes. A group of digimon, allegedly from Sincerity, tried breaking into the portal station on the outskirts of East City. They said that none of them made it through. They were caught before getting inside. But they could just be hiding the truth."

"Yeah... There is always hope." Most portal stations led to Odaiba, the "Digital Capital" of the Human World. It was possible that if there were any that escaped, they would be in Japan. "You think any of them were your friends?"

"I dunno..." Akira looked unsure. His ears did not droop this time, but it was obvious that he was thinking. "I didn't live in East City. But some of my friends may have moved there. They wouldn't have joined Sincerity, though. Then again, they could just be using the situation to blame Sincerity."

"Yeah. I doubt those guys were in Sincerity. They were probably just people trying to escape the Digital World."

Akira smiled when he heard Shou say "people." Most humans thought of them as just pockets of data that happened to have something resembling consciousness. Shou was different, though. Shou seemed a bit more compassionate towards his kind and all life in general. Of all the humans he could have befriended after his escape to the Human World, nobody would have been a better friend than Shou to him.

Suddenly, the TV shut off and the lights turned out. "Dammit," Shou said. He turned to his friend. "Do you mind?"

Akira smiled again. "Of course not, buddy." He jumped off the bed and ran to the housing generator. He took hold of a cord with his mouth and let a surge of electricity fill the apartment's emergency battery up. His red and blue fur spiked up as he let the electricity out and he held his eyes closed. Normally, this battery stayed full while power coursed through the house from the power company. The emergency battery could be activated when there was a power surge and electricity was needed.

"Thanks, pal," Shou said as Akira jumped up onto the bed. The lights were back on and the TV was playing again. "I wish I could tell my dad about you, though. But I don't know how he would take having a digimon in the house..."

"I understand, Shou. I don't want to leave this place. Your dad could kick me out."

"Such a shame, though. He wouldn't have to worry so much about leaving me here alone if he knew about you. You could easily protect me if something went wrong."

Akira nodded. His fur was falling back down to his body, going back to normal after the surge of electricity. Now the shapes of his blue stripes against his red fur could easily be made out. It was no longer a mess of mixed reds and blues. "I would protect you with my life, Shou."

Shou smiled. "You don't have to be that serious, Akira."

"But I really would..." His ears drooped downward. If it was not for Shou, he might not have found a place to live. He could have been shipped back to the Digital World by now. Or worse: placed in a DigiCorp prison. He had started to tear up thinking about it. "I would give my life for you."

Shou held back a tear. "Come on, Akira. We're guys. We can't be crying." Shou wiped his eyes with his hand while Akira wiped at his own eyes with his paws. "There, all better." He grinned wide. "No need to worry about that. I don't think there will be any threats against my life any time soon." He chuckled a bit which made Akira follow suit.

Soon after, they were in a fit of laughter, all carefree.

* * *

Daichi and Saru had never seen such a large, building-filled city. Odaiba was even larger than East City, which was the biggest city in Server as well as the other Eastern Continents. "No way..." Saru stared wide eyed at all the sky scrapers and all the people below them walking the sidewalks. Cars zoomed this way and that.

"Machines..." Daichi said as he floated by his friend, Saru. Daichi himself resembled machines. Being a Hagurumon, he looked like a gear with a black, circular body and a gold frame around him. He had holes on his metallic body where his two red eyes peered through, one hole perfectly circular, the other jagged. Below his eyes was a zigzaggy mouth.

"I know." Saru's voice was more high pitched and girl-like. It has been theorized that digimon have no genders. However, many digimon (including full species of them) have appearances and mannerisms that resemble one gender or another. Saru, being a member of the Koemon species, appeared to be gender neutral if based specifically on physical appearance. She looked quite like a green monkey with tan belly, face, and feet. She wore two brown gloves and carried a large, wooden slingshot on her back. The fur on her head was tied up in a ponytail.

Though she looked gender neutral, she spoke and acted much like a girl. Digimon like her are generally referred to as "her" or "she," regardless of whether you can classify digimon by gender or not.

The two digimon were on the roof of a ten story DigiCorp building located a few blocks away from the main headquarters building. They had tried escaping the digital world with a handful of others, but only they made it. When they went to the other side, they found themselves inside this building.

"How do we get down there?" Saru was not really asking Daichi. She was just trying to think of a way. Then she looked over at her friend who was hovering a few feet above the ground. She had a little smirk on her face.

"Saru... What are you planning on doing?" The gear-shaped digimon looked quite nervous.

"Don't worry yourself, Dai. I'm just going to ride on your back on the way down."

"I don't think I can support you, Saru."

"Are you saying I'm heavy? Fat?"

"No no... Not at all." The very instant he got the words out of his mouth, the monkey digimon jumped on top of Daichi, holding on to his frame. "Ack! Saru!"

"You're still hovering, are you not?" she said, leaning her head down next to his face and smirking. "C'mon! Let's get down there!"

"Okay..." He slowly hovered over the edge, scared of losing control from the extra weight and falling to his doom. Then again, he would recover before hitting the ground. Saru, however, would not be so lucky. He gulped.

"Faster! C'mon!"

If machines could sweat, he would be soaked. He was gradually floating downward, trying to keep his balance. Levitation came naturally to him, of course. But never had he had a passenger on his back a hundred feet in the air. He tried staying close to the edge of the building so he was not in view of any windows. He hoped that he would be able to blend in to the side of the building so that those on the street looking up would not see him.

Though Saru, having green fur, was a bit easier to spot. At first, nobody noticed them. The pedestrians had no reason to look up as they knew what the cityscape looked like. They traveled it everyday. But after awhile, people began catching a glimpse of green in their eyes. Then they started looking up, pointing, and talking amongst themselves of the sight they saw.

When Saru finally noticed they had caught their attention, she jumped off of Daichi's back, falling 20 feet and landing solidly on her feet. "C'mon!"

Daichi, now not worried about losing a passenger, glided through the air much faster, following his companion down an alleyway. "Slow down! I can't float as fast as you!"

"But I can't float at all," Saru said, looking back at him with a puzzled look on her face.

"Ugh... You know what I mean!"

* * *

Tatsuya and Pence had been neighbors all their lives. So it was no surprise that they became good friends. They were also the same age, both 13 years old, and, of course, went to the same school, Oidaba Junior High. Their days generally consisted of hanging at one or the other's apartment after school, chatting, playing video games, the like. This day they were at Tatsuya's.

Pence was the shorter one by about a few inches and had dark auburn red hair. His friend Tatsuya on the other hand had a dark, almost black, shade of hair color and was slightly thinner in build compared to Pence, but neither of them were what one would consider fat. Pence was just slightly chubbier.

Pence was digging into a video game console with his tools. The game got an error, and he was trying to fix it. He was no genius, but he did have a bit of a specialty with electronics and machines. His mom was a computer programmer who worked for DigiCorp, working on the fifth floor of one of the fringe buildings surrounding the headquarters along with many other employees well versed with computers. He had kind of picked this trait up being raised by her.

While Pence worked on fixing the game console, Tatsuya was watching a funny cartoon on TV. "Look, Pence! Did you hear him? Ah haha!"

Pence smiled. "Yeah, I heard. 'You need _two_ of them. I get it." He chuckled a bit. It was not that he did not find it funny. It was. But he had a slightly different sense of humor than his friend, Tatsuya. Plus it was much easier to make Tatsuya laugh. "Hmm..." Pence got up from sitting on the floor beside his friend and started looking around the living room.

"What are you looking for?"

"Nothing, Tats. Just... can't seem to find your little screwdriver. I need the real skinny one to fit this screw here." He pointed to a tiny screw on the console.

"Oh... Uhm. I think Dad left it in his car. Hold on..." Tatsuya got up and walked into his parents' room. Pence could hear him asking his dad where the screwdriver was then asking for his car keys. He came back, keys in hand and a grin on his face. "Let's go!"

Pence nodded and gave a slight smile. "Haha, yes. What a team."

They took the elevator down to the ground floor then walked through the door to the garage. Most apartment complexes in the neighborhood (as well as many others across the world, nowadays) had a connecting multi-story garage building. The apartment complex Tatsuya and Pence lived at involved three towering apartment buildings situated around a tall and wide garage building.

The two friends stood at the ground floor of the garage and looked up the ramp, which circled around as it ramped up, allowing cars to get to the next floor. "So what floor is your dad's car at?" Pence asked.

"Fifth..."

"Damn... This thing needs an elevator." They started walking up the ramps to get to the car.

"Shiro's apartment has an elevator for cars," Tatsuya said.

"Really? I think I've heard of those before... We should get one."

"Definitely."

"Shh... I hear someone!"

"You say something, Pence?" Tatsuya asked.

Pence stopped walking and looked at his friend. "No...." Tatsuya followed suit and tried listening for the people talking. He heard nothing.

They were currently on the third floor. And someone else was definitely there with them. "I think it came from this way," Tatsuya said, pointing towards a pair of cars, one red and one blue. "Let's check it out..."

"We gotta be careful, though."

"Oh come on... would a dangerous person be hiding out in a garage?"

"Yes," Pence stated. A garage was not a likely place for someone to hide. Which would make it a perfect place for someone to hide.

When they approached and looked behind the red car, they were startled at what they saw. It looked like a green-furred monkey was trying to fit a large gear underneath a car. But the gear was too large. "C'mon!" the monkey whispered. "You're too fat..." She was holding herself up against the side of the car with her hands while she tried pushing the gear under with her feet.

"Oh now you are calling _me_ fat. Hey... quit it!" The monkey was banging on the gear, trying to fit him under the car.

"Ahem..." the two kids said in unison. The creatures looked up immediately.

The monkey slipped under the car quickly while the gear stayed where he was, stuck underneath the car. "Wait! Saru!" His eyes were rolled back in his attempt to see his companion behind him, but to no avail. Then he pointed his eyes back to the kids. "Uh... hey there."

"Hey..." Tatsuya said. "You guys... okay?" The boy started approaching the creature.

"Wait! They could be dangerous! They could be in Sincerity!" It was obvious to the kids that these two creatures were digimon, though they had never seen one in person before.

Tatsuya did not listen to Pence. He walked up to the gear-shaped digimon and started trying to pull him out, but to no avail. One of the square "teeth" of his cog-like frame was stuck against the underside of the car.

"No, Tatsuya!" Pence started approaching the two. "Ugh... You're doing it wrong," he said after giving up. He got beside Tatsuya and helped lift the gear. "Wait, no. Push him forward a bit." He helped guide the gear out from under the car using logic, not shear force like Tatsuya. Even if his friend was strong enough to pull the gear digimon free, he would have easily broken something in the process. Or hurt himself. But Pence knew that all they needed to do was pull him out the way he was put in, reversing the process. Simple.

"Wow... thanks, guys," the gear said. "Uh... I'm Daichi."

"Nice to meet you." Pence smiled, proud that he could get the gear digimon out, with the help of Tatsuya, of course. "I'm Pence. And this is Tatsuya."

"Nice to meet ya," Tatsuya said. He was going to outstretch his hand, but realized that the little guy did not have any hands to shake with. "Where's that other digimon we saw?"

"Oh, that's Saru. Saru! Come out!"

"No!" They heard the voice coming from somewhere under the car.

"Come on, Saru... They won't hurt us."

"Okay!" She jumped out from underneath the car and immediately shook the humans' hands. The kids were shocked by her sudden change of mind and attitude, but did not worry too much about it and shook her monkey-like hands. "I'm Saru."

"Nice to meet you," the kids said one after another.

"So..." Tatsuya began, "why are you guys hiding in our garage?"

Saru looked at her companion about to ask what a "garage" was but Daichi spoke up before she could. "Well... We were hiding from DigiCorp."

"DigiCorp?" Pence asked. "Why?"

"Hey, doesn't your mom work--" Before Tatsuya could finish his sentence, Pence covered his mouth.

Daichi seemed a bit confused by this gesture, but did not say anything about it. "Because if they catch us, they'll take us back to the Digimon World."

"Oh," the kids said together, as if reading each others' thoughts. Tatsuya did not understand the digimon's plight like Pence did. Pence watched the news a lot and seemed to understand that most digimon did not like living there in the Digital World. Or at least, in places controlled by DigiCorp (which was allegedly over 90% of the surface). But Tatsuya did understand that DigiCorp were the "digimon police" of both the Real and Digital Worlds. If digimon were living in the Real World illegally, DigiCorp would be looking for them to bring them back. And it seemed obvious to him that these two digimon did not want to go back.

"We gotta help em, Pence."

"I know, Tats." Pence was already thinking of a way to hide them. "Hmm... Tats, when does your dad go to work tomorrow?"

"Ten I think... Why?"

"And when do you plan on getting up in the morning?"

"After... that?" Tatsuya could already tell that he would be getting less sleep in the morning. Pence was planning something.

"What did you say? Before ten?" Before Tatsuya could tell him that tomorrow was not a school day and he "needed" more sleep than that, Pence continued talking, looking at the two digimon this time. "You two can hide in Tatsuya's car."

"Hmm... you look a little young to have a car," Saru said, walking up closer to the human boy and looking up at him.

"It's probably his dad's car," Daichi said.

"How do you figure?"

"Because apparently his dad is the one using it." Saru looked a little set back by Daichi's statement. "Nevermind," he stated plainly.

"Yeah it is my dad's car," Tatsuya said. "And I don't think he would be happy with having two digimon living in his car..." The two digimon looked down to the ground. They had the opportunity for definite shelter, but now it could be taken away. "But.... He won't know anyway." He grinned big as he watched the reaction on the two digimon's faces as well.

"You'll really let us, Tatsuya?" Daichi said.

"Of course, Gears."

"His name is Daichi..." Pence said.

"Yeah I know. But he does look like a gear, doesn't he?" Tatsuya asked.

Saru looked at her companion then back at the two children. "It is the truth," she said as if noticing this for the first time. Daichi sighed.

* * *

The two kids made it back to the apartment a few minutes later, saying goodbye to their new friends. They sat in their normal spots on the floor in front of the TV. Tatsuya's parents were in their room with the door closed. This gave them the opportunity to talk in private.

"Okay, Tats, you can't tell _anybody_ about this."

"I _know_ that, Pence."

"You do?" Tatsuya nodded. "Alright... Well, those two will need some food, I'm sure. So later tonight, we both should bring some food over there."

"Got it. I'll bring some of mine and you'll bring some of yours. That way we don't have to carry as much."

"Sounds like a plan." Again, Tatsuya had read his mind. He pulled the game console back over to his lap then softly cursed. "Damn..."

"What?"

"I forgot the screwdriver." Tatsuya began chuckling and Pence followed as well. He admitted that it was kind of funny. Tatsuya's mom came into the room and noticed the two kids enjoying each others' company.

"And what are you two laughing at?" she asked, smiling.

"Oh, well we met a couple digimon today." Pence looked angrily at Tatsuya after his statement. But he just looked back with a relaxed expression.

"Oh you two kids and your games. What imaginations... Digimon. I doubt you'll find many of those around here."

"You'd be surprised, mom."

She chuckled as she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a snack for her husband and herself. Just as she was closing the frige door, the apartment door opened and Tatsuya's sister, Miyu, walked in.

Instantly, Pence looked up to see her. Miyu was two years older than the two boys and, in Pence's opinion, very attractive. Unlike Tatsuya, she had pretty light brown colored hair. And her eyes were blue, a direct contrast to Tatsuya's brown eyes. It was just too bad that she was such a vain, selfish girl. And of course she hardly even notices he exists.

"I'm home, mom," she said, walking past the two boys on the floor.

"Hey, dear. You're home already?"

"Yeah, Jou had to go home early. So our date was cut short."

"Jou? I thought you were dating that uh... Ichigo kid."

"Ichigo? No, mom." She was still dating him, but her mom did not need to know that. And neither did Jou. "And me and Jou aren't together either. Just a little date. You know?"

Tatsuya rolled his eyes. Maybe his mom could not see what was going on, but he easily could. And he was only thirteen. Miyu was playing the two boys. And possibly many many others.

Pence understood this as well. Another reason _not_ to get hung up on this girl. "Well, I gotta go," Pence said. "It is getting late. Later Miss Hayashi, later Tatsuya. See you tomorrow morning?"

Tatsuya nodded.

"_Morning_?" his mom asked. "As if he is ever awake in the morning when there's no school. But anyway, bye Pence."

"Have a good day," he said as he got up and walked to the door. "Bye Miyu."

She turned back to see him and gave a slight smile. "Bye Pence."

He opened the door and walked out. _Eh, I guess she does notice me after all,_ he thought. Not that it made her that much of a better person. But at least she did notice him.

He walked across the hallway to his apartment. Now to wait until later tonight to bring his new friends some food.

* * *

"Ah, welcome Dragon!" As soon as the sovereign walked in, the chubby man got up from his seat. "Welcome to Portal G-15."

"Hello," Dragon said, smiling slightly, which was the most noticeable feature of his face with his eyes covered by those dark sunglasses. He understood this and changed his lip gestures accordingly during conversations.

He was flanked on either side by people in black suits, one man on the left and a man and woman on the right. The woman was closer to his side and had light magenta colored hair which stuck out amongst the rest of the people in the room. "This is Mister Toriyama," she said to Dragon.

"Oh I'm aware," the sovereign said. "We've met."

"We have?" Toriyama asked.

"Yes. I was once an agent for DigiCorp. And I used this portal almost exclusively."

"Oh, well... I didn't notice you with those glasses on."

"I always wore these."

"Oh..."

"It's okay. Don't apologize, Mister Toriyama."

"I didn't."

"But you were going to, weren't you?"

Toriyama grinned. He was just about to apologize before Dragon said that. He liked this sovereign. "Well, I understand you and your crew would like to go to the Digital World?"

"Of course."

"Just you four?"

"Yes. These three are all I need, Mister Toriyama. They are my most trusted bodyguards."

Odd. Toriyama figured that a sovereign venturing to the Digital World would bring with him more protection. They obviously have the means for it. But he had never seen a sovereign off before. They hardly ever ventured to the Digital World. Why would they need to? "Well alright, Dragon. You four are set to go."

None of them said anything as they positioned themselves in front of the portal. Toriyama sat in his seat behind them, typing commands onto the panel. A hologram loaded up, showing him statistics and the location they would be sent. "Ready when you are."

Dragon looked behind him at the chubby little man, gave him a thumbs up, and turned his head back. The portal activated, the screen-like wall in front of them glowing bright white with a multicolored swirl in the middle. Then the swirl took shape, showing the landscape to which they would be teleported to. A plain of greens, greys, and browns with a very large, walled city in the background. East City, capital of the Eastern Continents. They could see people, humans, walking around in the portal's POV, making their way for the new visitors.

Then, there was a bright light that enveloped the four, Dragon and his bodyguards. And soon after, they disappeared.

"What a weird man... But I like him." Toriyama spoke to no one in particular. Normally he had his crewmen in the room to see the travelers off, but he did not think a sovereign would want so many people in one room while he was traveling, so he sent them away for the moment. But now he'll be alone in this room for an hour or so.

Ah well. Toriyama opened up a game on the holographic display and got busy playing that.

* * *

Author's Note:

Ah finally got this chapter out. Hope you enjoyed it.

For those that may be confused about Koemon, the name "Monmon" is a bit more popular with those who played the games. Remember the cute, green monkey from Digimon World 3 (2003 for European players)? That's Koemon. The wiki lists both names, but seems to prefer Koemon. I wasn't sure which one to use, but I like Koemon more than Monmon (repetitive much?) and thus I have been using Koemon instead.

Now that that is out of the way, I wish to speak a bit about two things before I go, though: Technology and Dub

If you'll notice, though it is a century into the future, technology doesn't seem radically different. However, they are using more "advanced" technology, such as holographic projections and the like. But to be truly honest, I don't think that technology will be that radically different in a hundred years. And if it will be, I have no way of knowing how different it will be. So I've decided to keep it simple.

As for dub. I grew up with the dub of the show, not the sub. I haven't seen the whole series in sub, either. However, when the characters are mentioned I will usually use their original names (like Miyako from the prologue) because those are their real names, IMO. However, I did always see names like Tai and Matt more of nicknames to the kids (coming from Taichi and Yamato). Even Izzy isn't too far fetched a nickname, taken from his surname (Izumi). Season 1 didn't have many radical name changes for the dub. Season 2 did, though. I can almost understand Davis and Cody because they are very common english names. But Yolie? Where did that come from? They could have just stayed with Miyako and been just fine. .

Also another note. If you'll notice, sometimes I refer to the Real World as Human World and (more rarely) the Digital World as the Digimon World. This is because of the different views of the two worlds between humans and digimon. Most humans refer to their world as the "Real World." Most digimon, however, see it insulting to call the Human World "Real" when their world is just as real to them. This shows up in the narrative as well, when the pov is mostly centered around characters who see the "Real World" as the "Human World."

Now, onto the extras.

**Adventure 0X Files**

**Shou**

Partner: Akira, an Elecmon

Bio: Before befriending Akira, Shou lived alone with his father in a slum neighborhood. His father could not keep up with the ever changing job market and has been laid off several times. This has led to his power being turned off in his apartment before the beginning of the story. But, a few weeks before the story took place, Shou met Akira, a digimon illegally living in the Real World. Shou let him live with him, hiding the digimon from his father, and became good friends with him. They seem to already share a very special bond between them.

**Terms**

Portal Station – The name for stations in the Digital World and linked stations in the Real World that house a digital portal for transportation between the worlds. There are other ways to travel between the worlds, but they are hard to come by. Portal stations are vastly the most common.

Hikarigaoka – Now normally I wouldn't place the name of a generic Real World city in the terms list (though Hikarigaoka is not the name of a city in real life), I do think I need to put this here. The reason is for those who followed the dub of digimon and not the sub. Hikarigaoka is the name for the original home town of the digidestined, while in the dub it was named "Highton View Terrace." Don't ask me why, even though they kept an obviously Japanese name like Odaiba (but of course that is a real place). Since the events of Adventure and Zero Two, Hikarigaoka has become a much bigger city, but has several "slums" in it, one of which being the home of Shou.

Chapter 2 Preview: Tomorrow comes, and Tatsuya and Pence get to know these two digimon more. And have to alleviate a very pressing... situation. Yoshio, our Dragon, starts his journey in the digital world with bodyguards in tow. Meanwhile, we are introduced to another human child, this time one living in the Digital World.

(again, kinda vague. But at least it is not as vague as last time, huh? Until next time, my hopeful readers!)


	3. Chapter Two: Inside The System

Alright. Finally back with a brand spankin' new chapter. And this one is around a thousand words bigger than the last. Man if this trend continues, the last chapter will be novella sized : o.

Anyway, enjoy!

Oh and **Digimon is owned by Toei Animation, NOT ThatTwoGuy. **Of course you know that, but in case you lost all memory between reading the last chapter and this one, I'm letting you know. Then again, if that was the case, I recommend starting back from the beginning : o.

_Update 5-21-10: I just noticed that my line breaks haven't been uploading over from open office to this site. Wth... Sorry for any previous readers who may have found no separation between different segments of the chapters to be confusing. I've added the line breaks to the previous chapter and this one. _

* * *

**Chapter Two: Inside The System**

At first, Dragon could not see anything. A side effect of the digiport. He was temporarily blinded for about a minute. But during those first seconds, he could feel the slightly chilling wind of the Digital World. He missed this place. "It's been awhile," the sovereign said.

"Hello there." Dragon heard a very friendly voice coming from somewhere in front of him. He positioned his head and his eyes towards the direction.

"Hello?" he asked. Dragon was not sure if the man could tell that he was still blinded.

"Oh, sorry. My name is Kyotoro." When the sovereign's vision returned, he could see a short, chubby man in front of him, outstretching his hand. Dragon shook it. "I manage the portal on the Digiworld side."

_The transportation department has a knack for hiring big-boned middle aged men_, the sovereign thought. "Nice to meet you." He looked around at the portal station. Unlike the one in the Real World, the portal station here was very open and outdoors. A large, metallic fence circled around a large portal "screen" connected to a mass of machinery. Agents and digimon stood outside the fence, guarding the portal. Some digimon worked directly for DigiCorp's law enforcement and peace keeping departments as agents. But most of the digimon were artificially created ones, programmed to work for the megacorporation. One of the common tailor made digimon was the CrimsonGarurumon. It looked quite like a Garurumon, except with black fur and crimson stripes. Three of these Garurumon variations stood outside the portal station, ever watchful.

"This place is very well guarded," Dragon said. "Is this the station that was attacked the other day?"

"No, sir," Kyotoro stated. "That was G-18. It is still undergoing maintenance."

"Did any digimon escape to the Real World, Mister Kyotoro?"

"Oh, call me 'Kyo.' And no, none of them made it out to the Real World. We are sure of that."

"Oh really?" Dragon looked over at his three guards. They were all looking at the environment around them. It must have been awhile since the last time these three came to the Digital World. He then looked back at the portal manager, awaiting an answer.

"Of course, Dragon. We are very thorough." Dragon noticed that, aside from the agents outside, Kyotoro was the only person inside the fence. The others must have been sent away to make way for the sovereign. Maybe the managers feel they are the only ones worthy enough to see a sovereign off.

"I see. Well I shall be off."

"Do you require transportation? I can call up a buggy. Or maybe a Crimson, if you prefer?" He pointed towards one of the CrimsonGarurumon guarding the station.

"No thanks. I'll walk. Come on." He gestured to his three bodyguards, who followed close behind as the sovereign began walking in the direction of the city. "We are going to East City. See you soon, Kyo."

The manager nodded, smiling. "You too, Dragon. Have a nice stay in the Digital World."

"Oh, I will."

* * *

"_Daichi! Saru! Run!" I hear his voice clearly, even through all of the chaos. I look back and see Enry, a Tyranomon, holding off the DigiCorp agents. I look over at my green furred companion, nod as she nods, and press on forward. _

"_Agh!" His screams make me look back. The agents are firing those suppression weapons, guns that seem to shoot a wavy, jagged stream of concentrated energy at Enry. He falls to the ground as he feels the surges of energy course through him. "No!" I think about going back there to help him. But what can I, a mere Rookie, do against those weapons? I look around me and see the other members of our crew: A Gekomon already held on the ground by two agents. A Gargomon, helping Enry hold off the other agents so we can escape. Two Floramon, running away from the portal center, hoping to get away. That just leaves me and Saru, running for our lives towards the portal. Maybe we will make it._

"_No..." I hear the Gargomon say. The sound of gunfire dies down completely. He must be out of ammo, but I'm too scared to look back. A guard jumps in front of us, hoping to stop us. _

_Before Saru can wield her large slingshot, a dark gear materializes in front of me and speeds towards the human. He jumps out of the way just as we leap forward, towards the digiport to the Human World. I look back with Saru to see Enry falling to the ground, finally defeated by the agents. _

_We'll come back for you, Enry.... One day._

"_Wake--"_

* * *

"-- up, Daichi." The gear-shaped digimon felt someone nudge his side and he heard a soft, murmuring whisper.

"Saru?"

"Shh! I think someone is here!" They both looked out the car window. A figure was definitely approaching them holding a small, dull flashlight.

"Wait," Daichi said. "That's... That's Pence!" He stood there on the passenger side, beside the two digimon.

"Press the second button on the door," Pence said, speaking loud enough for the two digimon to hear him from behind the window. Daichi nudged it with his gear-like hand. The door unlocked and Pence opened it. "Thanks, guys. I brought you something..." Pence reached behind him and took off a green backpack, letting it down on the passenger seat beside the two digimon.

Saru sniffed it. "Food...?"

Pence nodded, grinning as he unzipped the bag. He started pulling various junk food out from inside the bag: chips, boxed cupcakes, crackers. Saru started tearing at the bags and boxes of food, stuffing her face. "Saru, show some restraint!"

"Oh stuff it, Dai! We haven't had food since we left our world!"

She was right. Daichi's metallic belly was grumbling right now. "Here," Pence said, handing the little gear digimon a cupcake. "Try this."

Daichi looked at the cupcake in astonishment. He had never seen food quite like this. "Okay..." Pence guided it into his open mouth and he chewed it tenderly, enjoying the sweet taste. He grinned as he took another cupcake from the box and ate it.

"Hmm," Pence thought. "Tatsuya should be here soon. He's bringing some food, too."

"Wow, really!" Saru exclaimed, with chip crumbs falling from her mouth.

"Whoa... Try not to get the crumbs all over Tatsuya's car, okay?"

Saru looked at the human wide-eyed.

"Or I may have to take the food back."

She then looked down at the seat and scurried to wipe all the crumbs out of the car. Daichi just hovered outside the car while he ate, letting the crumbs fall to the garage floor.

* * *

"Come on, there has to be something good in here..." Tatsuya was standing in front of the refrigerator in his pj's, looking for some food to bring his new digimon friends. He was pulling out bowl after bowl of sealed food, looking for something they might like. "Broccoli casserole? Eww no... I wouldn't put them through the torture. Hmm.... Meatloaf? No... Oh!" He found one bowl filled with noodles and red sauce. "Spaghetti! They'd love it." He was not quite sure if the digimon would really love it. But it was one of his favorites.

He carefully opened the microwave, so that the _click_ of it opening would not wake anybody. Then he placed a the bowl inside, closed the door, and turned it on. He did not really think that the digimon would care if it was hot or not. But he may want some of it. And Tatsuya was not a fan of cold spaghetti.

Just before the microwave rang to say that it was done, he pressed the button to open the door and took the steaming bowl out so it would not make a sound. "Oh yes, they would love this," he said to himself, picking up a couple noodles with his fingers and putting them in his mouth. He put the lid back on the Tupperware bowl and put it in his backpack. Then he pulled out four soda drinks from the fridge, one for each of them, and put them in his bag.

The boy then walked through the dark across the living room to the door. "Tats? Is that you?"

"Mom?" He looked in the direction of the voice and saw a figure on the couch. She must have fallen asleep while laying there watching TV. His dad or his sister probably turned the TV off for her.

"What are you doing with that food? I heard you using the microwave."

Well, so much for being sneaky about it. The living room was directly connected to the kitchen, so it would not be hard for someone in the living room to hear Tatsuya using the microwave. "Oh, just getting a midnight snack, Mom." He smiled, eyes closed as he scratched the back of his head.

"But... your room is down the hall. Isn't it...?" She sounded drowsy, half asleep.

"Oh, you're right!" He could not go out with his mom sleeping down here. "Say, shouldn't you be in bed? Why are you on the couch?"

"I... Must have dosed off."

"You should get in bed with Dad. I'm sure he misses you." Tatsuya prayed that this worked.

His heart raced as he heard his mom moving on the couch. _Did it work?_ Instead of getting up, she just rolled on her side, facing her head against the couch and away from the door.

"Mom?"

"Mmmff..." He could not hear what she was saying, if she was saying anything to begin with. Then, after a short pause, he heard snoring.

_Ah well..._ He slowly opened the door, making sure not to make any noise as he walked out and made his way to the garage.

* * *

_Falling._

_That feeling you get as you drift off. When you imagine you are falling down. But a sudden spasm jerks you out of sleep, waking you up._

_Except there is no spasm. _

_And you continue falling, no end in sight. _

_You never hit the ground._

* * *

"Hey, you!"

The voice woke the boy out of his sleep. He knew he was just experiencing a dream, but could not remember what it was about. When he opened his eyes, he saw a small, grey figure above him. The figure was shaped like a little dinosaur and had light grey skin with dark grey stripes here and there. The digimon had light blue eyes, resembling the shade the boy's eyes were.

The boy sat up. He had been sleeping in an empty alleyway of the vast East City. The boy was homeless, like many humans and digimon alike living in the big city. As he sat up, he looked at this digimon more properly. "Are you... an Agumon?" the boy asked.

"Yes, why?"

"I've never heard of a grey Agumon before..."

"Hey, cut out the teasing or I won't help you!"

The boy was not trying to tease him. He was just making an observation. He had really never heard of a grey Agumon before. A black one, maybe. And the SnowAgumon were white. But a grey one? GreyAgumon? Did they exist?

"I'm sorry... And what do you mean help me?" The boy decided to stand up, dusting off his dirty pants. He looked about eleven or twelve years old and had brown, spiky hair.

"Oh well you just looked lonely, guy. I thought maybe you could stay with me and my new friends."

"But... You don't even know me." The boy seemed dumbfounded. Why would a digimon care about someone they had never met?

"So? Be nice to others. Isn't that your golden rule, or something?"

"Golden rule... I don't have one, I guess." The boy was utterly confused.

"I mean, you humans! Not just you in general, guy. That's what Reks says."

"Reks?"

"Yeah!" The Agumon's eyes lit up. "He's our leader. He says that all humans have a golden rule and we should too."

"A golden rule..." The boy had never heard of such a thing. Then again, he did not know much about people. He had been an orphan for as long as he could remember.

The grey Agumon started to leave. When he noticed that the boy was not following, he looked back and said, "Aren't you coming?"

The boy walked up behind him. "I guess... Where are we going?"

"To our hideout, of course! Oh and what is your name, guy?"

"It's Shero."

"Oh, nice to meet you. I'm Kahn." The digimon gave him a toothy grin before turning back around and continuing on his way to the "hideout."

* * *

This "hideout" was just a small abandoned building a few blocks away. The door had fallen off (and was still laying there on the ground), but there was a piece of red cloth hanging in the doorway to give the place a bit of privacy. The grey Agumon held back the curtain with his claw and motioned for Shero to walk inside.

"Go ahead, guy."

Shero nodded and walked in. He was in a short hallway with three rooms connected to it, one to the left and two to the right. Kahn walked past the kid and opened the second door on the right then waited for him to approach. Shero walked up and looked inside.

The room was small and consisted of a large chair at one end of the room. A table, a few more, smaller chairs and stools were situated in front of the bigger chair. There was a window on one wall that was boarded up and a television screen built on another wall with a cord hanging off of it, leading to no where. The cord just ended at a stub with small wires sticking out.

In the big chair was a BlackAgumon while two normal colored Agumon sat in the small chairs in front of him. The one on the right had blue stripes while the one on the left had red. The three Agumon were playing a game of cards on the table. Each Agumon looked up at the two figures in the doorway, particularly the unfamiliar human.

"Hey guys!" Kahn said, walking inside. Shero stood still in the doorway.

"Who is this?" the BlackAgumon asked.

"Yeah, I thought humans weren't allowed," the blue striped one asked, looking over at his red striped counterpart.

"Not all humans are bad, guys," Kahn said. "And he is homeless, just like us."

"Homeless?" the black one asked, standing up from his seat. "This is our home."

"Yeah, but we don't work for DigiCorp," Kahn replied. DigiCorp had full housing and food control. Digimon did their part working for DigiCorp and DigiCorp did their part by giving the digimon homes, food, protection, and very small wages. Agumon, being a physically stronger species than many other rookies, were generally given physical, manual labor jobs. This group of Agumon did not want that. Slaving away building houses or fixing factories all day and night was not something they wanted to do for the rest of their lives. Or at least until they evolved and were given bigger, tougher jobs. That is, _if_ they evolved. Digimon can evolve naturally without fighting, training, or conflict. But digimon adapted to life as beasts of combat. Agumon being a more savage species, the best way to evolve was to fight and grow stronger. A digimon could become an agent for DigiCorp where combat is almost guaranteed. But digimon agents were seen as traitorous in the eyes of other digimon.

"Humans don't have to work for DigiCorp to live here," the blue striped Agumon said.

"But they still have to buy land here in the Digital World to be an official citizen," Kahn said. "Isn't that what you guys told me? And Shero here doesn't have any."

The human boy looked over at the grey Agumon. How did he know that Shero was homeless? He could have just ran away from home, from his parents, and stumbled onto a comfortable alley in an East City slum. Then again, it was pretty obvious.

"He is just like one of us," Red Stripes said.

"Why don't we help him?" Blue Stripes followed.

The BlackAgumon thought to himself for a minute. "Fine... But you gotta find a place for him to sleep, Kahn. And you watch him. If he is your friend, fine. But he is no friend of mine. And I don't trust him."

"Thank you, Reks," Kahn said happily. He looked over at Shero and grinned.

_Why is he helping me...? _Shero could not get his head around it. He had met this digimon just an hour ago. But there was something about this grey Agumon. He felt some kind of connection between them. _Is this fate?_

"What's wrong, guy?" Kahn asked. He was tilting his head to the side, looking at his new human friend. "Come in, you can sit by me." The grey Agumon sat on a stool, motioning for Shero to sit in the stool beside him. The human boy followed him, sitting to his right.

The two striped ones looked at him curiously. "I've never been this close to a human before," Blue Stripes said. His head inched closer to Shero as he sniffed him.

"Knock it out, Hoshi," Kahn said. The blue striped digimon, Hoshi, pulled back. "So who was winning?" Kahn pointed to the cards on the table.

"Hisake," Reks said, rolling his eyes. Hisake, the red striped Agumon, grinned.

"Oh, Reks is such a competitive player," Hisake said. "Me and Hoshi knew most of what was in his hand, anyway. He drew the three replacements." Their deck was, of course, a DigiCorp deck. Most of the items sold and traded in the Digital World were manufactured or sponsored by DigiCorp. They had found it abandoned on the ground a few weeks before in almost perfect shape. The only thing wrong was that it was missing three cards. They had to cut out pieces of cardboard to make "replacement" cards for them. And the four friends knew what cards those three were.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Reks said. "We have business to discuss." He was staring at the human boy in the room.

"We can talk about it with Shero here," Kahn said. "He's not going to do anything. I assure you."

Shero looked over at the digimon. Kahn did not even know him. But he was acting like he had known him for years. Yet... it did not seem to Shero that that was out of place. "I won't say anything," the boy said. "Really."

"Hmm..." Reks was still suspicious.

"Should we take a vote, then?" the blue striped Hoshi asked. "I'm all for it if Kahn is."

"As am I," Hisake said. "He doesn't look like a bad guy."

"And of course I am," Kahn chimed in.

Reks grumbled something under his breath. "Fine," he finally said. "He can stay here."

"Yes!" Kahn said. Hoshi and Hisake held up their claws towards the grey digimon. Kahn gave them both high fives.

Shero was a bit puzzled by the gesture, but did not worry too much about it. He just turned to Reks and asked, "What were you guys going to talk about?"

"Well, boy," Reks stated. He sat leaned back in his chair. "We are going to rob a museum."

"A... Museum?"

* * *

"Not a pretty sight, is it?" Dragon asked.

"Pardon, Dragon?" one of his male bodyguards, a blonde headed one, asked.

"The city." They were standing on a hill just a mile away from East City. A two-story tall wall surrounded the city, protecting it from outside threats and keeping the inhabitants inside. Most digimon residents of East City were not allowed to leave except when going to work outside the city limits. The wall had gates on four ends of the city, with guards checking digimon identification. Dragon could see many buildings sprouting above the wall here and there.

To his left, Dragon could see a group of nearby digimon with a few agents. Two Drimogimon and three or four Gazimon were leveling some ground outside the city, readying it for a building to be built. The two Drimogimon dug at the high ground and the Gazimon patted the ground down to keep it level. They would be there all day, even when the agents changed shifts.

"This is why the digimon are unhappy. Over the past century, they've had to change lifestyles. They can't decide their own path anymore. DigiCorp decides it for them."

His bodyguards remained silent.

Dragon pulled off his black glasses and looked at the environment with his bare eyes. The red-headed female guard stepped forward, standing beside him. He looked over at her.

"Wouldn't you hate to live like this, Cale?"

She looked over at him, seeing his blue eyes. She seemed speechless at first. There was something about those eyes that intrigued her. It was like she had seen those eyes before. But this was the first time any of his bodyguards had seen the new sovereign with his glasses off. Dragon looked away and put the sunglasses back on, hiding his eyes. After he did so, all was normal.

"Humans live this way, don't they?" Cale asked, regaining her composure.

"We don't generally have our occupations chosen for us, Cale. My decision to work with DigiCorp was my own. These digimon _have_ to do what they are told in order to survive on their own, now. Either that or they live in the savage lands and risk being deleted by digimon much stronger than they are." A few areas around the world are lands unaffiliated with DigiCorp. These lands are home to savage digimon. Since the laws of DigiCorp have no say in those lands, digimon fight for their lives and become stronger with each passing day. An average digimon grown in a DigiCorp city would not make it a day in those lands.

"But what is wrong with working for DigiCorp?" the blonde haired bodyguard asked.

"The previous Dragons have led you three astray, have they? Digimon are cheap workers. They are given virtually no money because all they really _need_ is food. And if you work for DigiCorp, you are granted food and housing. But there are no laws in the Digital World work place like back home in the Real World. Some jobs are brutal, tough, and dangerous."

"I don't think it would be too bad, sovereign," the other bodyguard stated, a man with grey hair despite appearing somewhere in his twenties or thirties. "They work and they are paid with food and housing. Not to mention protection. Sure some jobs can be tough. And some can be dangerous. But the only thing a digimon can blame is the misfortune of being born as a specific species suitable for the job."

The other two guards were a bit shocked by his short speech. The former Dragon would have scolded the bodyguard for arguing with him.

But the current Dragon just smiled. "Good point, Simon." He turned his back to his guards, looking back towards the city. "But who are we to decide all of this? We are not kings and we are definitely not gods. Just business men." Dragon was not speaking for his bodyguards, just for the sovereign. In the end, all the sovereign were were just business men who happened to have control of an entire world full of cheap workers. And they were cheap only because of DigiCorp's involvement. "Humans have no business here, Simon. Yet here we are."

"It's been this way for years," Simon said. "And it's not going to change anytime soon."

"Oh, what makes you think I was going to change that? I couldn't even if I tried, Simon. We are all wrapped inside the system, aren't we?" The smile left the sovereign's lips as he walked along the road to the city, his bodyguards in tow.

* * *

Pence got up at eight o'clock sharp, despite going to sleep pretty late in anticipation to see his digimon friends again. He had already repacked his backpack with more food the previous night so that his dad would not ask what he was up to.

After getting dressed and putting his backpack on, he went into the living room and picked up the phone, dialing Tatsuya's number.

After a couple rings someone answered. "Hello?"

"Miss Hayashi?"

There was a giggle on the other end. "I don't sound that old, do I?"

"Oh... Sorry Miyuki. It's Pence."

"I figured. It did sound like you. And just Miyu is fine, of course. Do you wanna talk to Tats?"

"Oh uh... Yeah of course." _She recognizes my voice?_

"Ha. And you expected him to be awake?" bureaucratic

"Well could you wake him and tell him to meet me?"

"I can try, but he is a deep sleeper."

"Just wake him up somehow, okay?"

"Oh you shouldn't say that to me. I have some very creative ways of waking him up." Pence couldn't see her, but he could tell there was a smile curling across her face. It was a sister's job to make her little brother miserable. He was sure she knew several ways of waking a deep sleeper like Tatsuya up.

He felt a little bad about it, but the digimon needed them. "Do whatever it takes, Miyu. I'll, uh... see ya later?"

"Of course, Pence. Later." She hung up, probably on her way to Tatsuya's room. He placed the phone back down and made sure he had his cell phone in his backpack just in case. Then he set out to the garage.

* * *

Pence found the fifth floor of the garage nearly empty. Most of the cars were gone as they were needed for the residents to go to work. He saw Daichi hovering left and right beside Tatsuya's dad's car, pacing in place. He almost cursed the digimon right there for staying in plain sight.

"Dai!" The gear-shaped digimon turned towards him.

"Pence!" He looked nervous. "Uh... Hi."

"What's wrong? Where's Saru?"

"No where!" A voice came from underneath the car. She was obviously trying to hide and apparently thought that no one would question whose voice spoke up from under the car.

"We have a problem..." Dai stated, looking down.

"What is it?" Pence asked, approaching the car and putting his hand on the unlocked door. "Why aren't you in here?"

"Well...." Dai sighed as Pence opened the door and started coughing.

"Ugh... what is that smell?" He looked inside and saw a pinkish material curled up like the top of a short, fat ice cream cone... Or like a turd. "What the hell?"

"Saru.... couldn't hold it."

"It was an accident!" The voice from under the car again.

"It's... It's okay Saru." He closed the door and sat down beside the car. He pulled his phone out and dialed Tatsuya's cell phone. He was probably on his way by now.

"Hello?"

"Tats! Uh, where are you?"

"On my way to the garage. Why?"

"Well... could you go back to your house and get some cleaning supplies? And... an air freshener?"

"Why....?"

"Sar--"

"Shh!" Saru hissed.

"Uh, someone made a mess in your dad's car."

"I doubt he'll care about a few crumbs on the seat," Tatsuya said.

"No, I mean someone made a _mess_."

"Oh! Oh... Damn. Okay I'll be there."

"Now what?" Daichi asked.

"Now we wait... So, anyone up for some snacks?" Just as Pence was pulling his pack off his shoulders, Saru jumped from under the car and grabbed the bag, zipping it open immediately.

"Yay! I'm starved!" She began opening each bag and box of snacks, even when she did not eat anything from them. Daichi joined in, eating what he could grab before Saru snatched it.

"Well... I guess she is okay, now," Pence thought aloud.

"Of course," Daichi stated. "She has food."

* * *

After some time, Tatsuya walked up to the group, carrying a backpack presumably full of cleaning materials. The top of his tee shirt was wet and his hair was pretty damp. "What happened to you?" Pence asked.

"Miyuki woke me up..."

When Saru heard Tatsuya's voice, she jumped back under the car.

"It's okay Saru!" Pence said, reaching under the car for her. She then proceeded to bite his hand. "Ow!" he yelped, pulling his hand back.

"Yeah, it's alright, buddy," Tatsuya said. "We all have our... accidents."

She peaked her head from under the car. "Really?"

Tatsuya smiled. "Of course."

"Okay!" She ran out from under the car and jumped up, latching her arms around Tatsuya.

"Saru.... You're squeezing me..." Not only that, but he was having trouble holding the digimon up.

"Oh! Sorry!" She jumped back down and hugged his leg instead.

"She is a weird one," Pence said. "Anyway, let's get to cleaning. Be sure to breathe through your mouth, Tats." He opened the door.

"Oh God!"

"I said breathe through your mouth."

"Yeah, but I didn't think it'd be that bad!"

Saru drooped her head down and blushed. Tatsuya patted her on the head. "It's okay, Saru. Really. We'll clean it up."

"Yay!" She smiled up at him and clinged to his leg again.

He tried moving his leg forward with her clinging to him, to no avail. "Uh... Saru... I can't move with you on my leg like that."

"Oh.. Sorry." She let go. And the four friends got to work cleaning the back seat.

* * *

"How long do I have to stay at Grandma's?" Shou asked. He pulled himself up from the back seat of the car to position his head between the two front seats in order to talk to his dad. Normally, he would have asked to sit in the front seat beside his dad, but Akira was hiding in the trunk of the car and Shou wanted to be as close as he could to his new friend.

"Just a few days. They have me working nearly non stop until Thursday. And I don't want to leave you home alone."

_You work all the time anyway,_ Shou thought. _And I have Akira to protect me at night when you're not there. Not that you know that..._

"Shou? Don't worry. It won't be long, you'll see."

"If you say so, Daddy."

His dad was leaning back in the driver's seat, reclining. He let the auto-drive take them to his mom's house. Shou had asked his dad once why you have to get a license to drive a car if most people just set it to auto-drive anyway. He said that sometimes, especially in emergencies, you may want to manually drive. That and if you were in a hurry, it was better to drive yourself since auto-drive follows the speed limit.

Their car was on the top-tier highway leading into Odaiba. Due to the massive amount of cars on the road, many big cities adopted the multi-floored highway system around the world. A few of the highways passing through Odaiba had three tiers, one stacked on top of each other. There was enough space between them to let sunlight in to the bottom two roads, but generally the buildings got in the way of the sun. So lights were installed on the bottom of the top and middle floor to give the middle and bottom roads enough light.

Shou looked out the window and saw a nearby building with the word "DigiCorp" written across it. Akira came from around here when he traveled to the Human World.

Even through sound dampeners in the car and the distance between the highway in the building, Shou could still hear what sounded vaguely like an explosion. A beam of blue energy shot out from one of the buildings surrounding the DigiCorp HQ. And the building happened to be the closest one to the car Shou and his dad were in, just a few miles away.

"What the hell was that?" Shou's dad leaned out of his seat and looked towards the building. The beam of energy dissipated before it could do any more damage. But it left a huge hole on the side of the building. Out of the hole came three blue dragon digimon with red wings and skull-like heads, a trio of Airdramon. A black and grey four-legged figure jumped out of the hole as well, landing on the top tier highway a few miles ahead of them. The horned Monochromon started running down the "wrong side of the road," heading straight to their location.

"Shit!" Shou's dad shouted. "Buckle up." They put their seat belts on and he took it out of automatic, taking control of the car.

"What are we doing? We can't drive straight towards them," Shou said. He was a bit worried. How did the digimon get here?

"I know, son," his dad said. The next ramp down to the second-tier was just a mile away. If he could make it there before the Monochromon got to them...

The car sped down the highway, passing by the other vehicles on the road. Ahead of them, the Monochromon was causing chaos, knocking into cars as he rammed forward like a stampeding rhino. Nothing could stop him. Shou winced as he saw one car knocked clean off of the highway, falling to the ground eighty feet below them.

The three Airdramon had passengers on them. Two of them had quite a few digimon on their backs. The other only had one small digimon. It was far away, but Shou could almost make it out. "Is that..."

"Shou," Akira whispered through the back seat. "What's going on?"

"No... That's a MetalMamemon!" Shou shouted.

"A what?" his dad asked, hardly paying attention. He was trying not to wreck the car.

Shou knew that species because it was constantly on the news. One of the head generals of Sincerity, Rizer, belonged to the MetalMamemon species. And there was no doubt in Shou's mind that this digimon and the general were the same individual. They had found their way to the Human World, most likely using one of DigiCorp's portal stations.

"Sincerity!" Akira yelled. "Let me out, Shou!"

"Did you say something?" his dad asked. They were almost there. But the Monochromon was gaining fast.

_I can't let him out,_ Shou thought. _Akira wouldn't stand a chance against him. _Or would he? Shou had never seen Akira fight. He was not even sure if he could fight at all. But that Monochromon out there was a champion. And a rookie was at a major disadvantage.

They were almost to the turn off for the ramp when the monster jumped upwards, landing right in front of them. "Oh hell!" yelled his dad as he turned the wheel, trying not to hit the beast. The car spun around 180 degrees and skidded slightly passed the digimon against the middle median railing of the highway. The Monochromon's tail slammed against the top of the car, holding it in place.

Shou's dad could not move the car. The tail was pressing down hard on them. The monster turned around and jumped forward, his front two feet landing on the hood of the car. Shou yelled but his dad remained as calm as he could. He had to be strong for his son.

"Let me out, Shou! Now!"

"Humans everywhere!" the beast yelled as he stared into the car, showing his sharp teeth.

"Dad! Open the trunk!"

"What?"

There was no time for Shou to explain. He pulled his seat belt off, jumped forward between the front seats, and pressed the trunk release button.

"Son! Get back!" His dad pushed him to the back of the car so that he landed against the cushion of the seats. From his peripheral vision, his dad saw a red and blue blur jumping from the trunk when he turned to make sure Shou was okay. Then he saw a stream of blue electricity shoot through the air and hit the side of the Monochromon.

The dinosaur digimon turned his head towards the Elecmon and pulled himself off the hood of the car. This new digimon proved a slightly bigger threat than two trapped humans.

"Who is that? Did he come from our trunk?" Shou's dad was utterly confused.

But Shou just looked out the window, trying to find where his friend was. He saw the electricity streak through the air, but he still couldn't locate the little digimon. "Be careful, Akira..."

Then he saw something shining on the floor of the car. Whatever it was, it must popped out of one of the seat compartments during the crash because Shou knew it was not on the floor before this chaos started. But who put it there in the first place? And what was it?

He picked it up. It was about two inches long and an inch wide. It's frame was vaguely rectangular shaped, with a curved bottom and a straight top. It had a V that began from the middle of the device and the sides of it sprouted outwards a little from the sides of the device. Inside the V itself was a triangular screen. The frame was colored grey while the V was colored brown. Under the V were five buttons. Three of them consisted of two brown half circles, one on top and one on bottom, with a third, grey button in the middle of the half circles. The other two buttons were located on either side of the first three buttons and were skinny rectangles going up and down. They, too, were colored brown. A brown clip hung from the bottom of the device and on the top was a small, squarish prong jutting out that appeared like it could connect to other prongs.

"What is this thing?" The screen was what was glowing. When he pressed a random button, the middle circle one, the shining stopped. The white screen was replaced with a black one with the words "D-Vice" sprawled across it in white.

* * *

Author's Note:

Time to discuss Digimon names a bit. If you noticed, most digimon have Japanese names, like Akira and Saru (not really a name, but it does mean monkey :P). But others have different names, like Enry and Rizer. This is because, in my hypothetical future, digimon have adapted naming after mass exposure to humans (then again, I always assumed that digimon would have names anyway. And that the reason they didn't in the show was just because of lazy writers... .). Generally, a digimon names itself as it doesn't have any true parents to name it. Sometimes they take common or even obscure Japanese or English names, like Akira or Enry (which is really just a self-made variant of "Henry," a common English name) and others have names they may think are cool, like Saru or Rizer.

**Adventure 0X Files**

**Shero**

Partner: Kahn, a grey Agumon.

Shero is an orphan who has lived in East City for as long as he can remember. He remembers trying to look for his parents, but stopped when he couldn't find them. And realized that his parents abandoning was a possibility. It wasn't really that rare. In the Digital World, DigiCorp taxes families based on their family size when it came to housing. He thought maybe he wasn't wanted and was thrown out to skip on bills. He lived day by day by stealing his food and taking shelter in alleyways.

* * *

I know there aren't any terms. I didn't see any I needed to put down here. But then again I wasn't really looking (I forgot). If I find any next time I read I'll put some down.

Chapter 3 Preview: Danger has come to Odaiba as a radical group from Sincerity terrorizes the city. Will this be what awakens the new digidestined and brings them together? Also, Shero, Kahn, and co. steal from a museum.

(I know it's been a bit slow introducing all the characters and everything. But it's time for some true, digimon on digimon action (no, not _that _kind of action, you perverts). This next chapter shall be a very fun one to write :P. Until next time, digifans (ridiculously lame pun .)! Bye!)


	4. Chapter Three:  I'll Call You Back

FINALLY got a new chapter up. Due to school, exams, work, etc I've been able to procrastinate with excuses. But now that I'm out of school for the summer, I realized that I need to stop procrastinating and finally work on this fic.

Man, these chapters just keep getting bigger. I've unintentionally continued the tradition. Over 12,000 words for this chapter. : o Also look forward to the new trivia segment located in the extras part of the chapter.

As a disclaimer, I gotta say that in the month or so absence I did manage to acquire the fan fiction rights to digimon..... **JUST KIDDING DON'T SUE ME PLEASE! **ThatTwoGuy of course still does not own any of the rights to digimon and never will.

* * *

**Chapter Three: I'll Call You Back**

The adrenaline of battle was a new feeling for Akira. And so was the fear. The little Digimon had never been so scared in his life. The monochromon was large, angry, and had a mouth full of teeth. But Akira had to protect his friend, Shou. He could see the shape of Shou's head out of the corner of his eye in the car window. The elecmon let out a yell and a torrent of electricity shot forth from his body towards the dinosaur-like digimon. The monochromon winced slightly, but shook it off. Akira could not manage to hurt him with his attacks.

To make matters worse, Shou's dad had gotten over the initial shock of the encounter and started driving off. "No! Shou!" Akira yelped, looking towards the car speeding away and the boy inside, yelling at his dad to turn around. Then he felt the impact of the monochromon's tail slam against his body and sending him flying a few yards.

Akira landed with a thud, but got up quickly. The monochromon had approached and was preparing another tail whip. He jumped out of the way quickly. Though he had never fought before, a digimon was born with combat instincts. It was how they lived. Or at least, how they used to live. His preincarnations lived in a world of danger and survival. But the world Akira lived was a much different one, a Digital World imperialized by humanity.

Yet something in his digicore was guiding his actions, giving him strength and influencing his movements. After the enemy digimon slammed his tail down, the little digimon bit down on the softer, gray skinned area of the monochromon's tail. Then he let forth a surge of electricity through his mouth, a surge more powerful than any of which he had produced before. And the enemy felt it.

The monochromon growled in pain and swung his tail, but Akira let go before he could be flung with it.

* * *

Shou struggled to see what was going on. But no matter what he said, his dad kept driving the car forward in the opposite direction. Would Akira make it? _What if I never see him again? _he thought to himself. He looked down at the device which had appeared so mysteriously in his dad's car. The "D-Vice." What was it?

The screen was blank, black. Shou had never seen it before in his life. But for some reason, he knew it had to do with Akira. He felt an odd sensation as he moved his fingers over the device. Then he pressed one of the buttons.

And the word "connecting" appeared across the previously blank screen.

And after a few seconds, it was replaced with "connected."

* * *

Akira struggled to regain his footing after jumping off of the monochromon's tail. He had succeeded at his mission, though. Shou was safe. But he knew he was no match for a champion level digimon. Sure, Shou was well out of the way. But now the monochromon was focused on Akira. And the little digimon was sure that that was not going to change anytime soon.

The adrenaline was still there, but he grew ever more fearful for his life. That is, until... He suddenly felt a large surge of energy. It was not just energy, but confidence. He had no idea where this was coming from, but he did not question it. As the monochromon charged forward at Akira, he held his ground. And just before the impact, he jumped forward and latched onto the monochromon's front-left leg. He struggled to hang on as the dinosaur digimon bucked and shook. Then Akira jumped forward and latched onto the softer gray skin on the side of the monochromon's belly and proceeded to unleash as much electrical energy as he could muster.

A phenomenal effort. A rookie was standing his own against a champion. But it was not enough. The monochromon did scream in pain and struggled to stay on his legs. But the elecmon was still at a disadvantage. This sudden surge of energy may have been enough for Akira to continue his fight a few moments longer, but he knew would ultimately lose.

The dinosaur digimon kept shaking and stirring to get Akira off, but to no avail. Then he fell down to his side, hoping to crush the little digimon when his side hit the ground. Akira jumped off before the impact, saving himself from being crushed by the bigger, armored digimon. That energy surge was running out. He panted heavily and his legs hardly kept him up. If he was to survive, he knew he had to make a run for it.

And run he did. While the monochromon was trying to pick himself up off the ground, the elecmon turned around and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction of his enemy. He felt an ache in his heart as he realized he was also running in the opposite direction than where his friend and partner, Shou, was heading. He hoped he would see him again one day.

But for now, he knew he had to run somewhere, anywhere, and get away from the armored menace that was already back on its feet. The monochromon roared as he bucked forward, charging at the little red and blue digimon.

Then Akira heard an explosion, the force of which flung him off his feet. When he hit the ground, he looked back to see that the monochromon was stuck inside the side wall railing of the bridge, the metal bent and broken surrounding the dinosaur. Something had hit him and flung him into it. He then saw a vehicle about as large as monochromon hovering beside the bridge.

It was a hovercopter. The vehicle was designed to hover above the ground while its two sets of helicopter blades guided its movement and direction of flight. The revolving blades were located on its wings, which protruded outwards on either side of the copter. They were like plane wings, but not quite as long. It was equipped with two vulcan machine guns, one on either wing, as well as several missiles. It must have launched one against the monochromon while on its way over to the side of the bridge which left the dinosaur digimon severely injured.

"Give up, digimon!" the crew of the copter said through its loud speakers. The monochromon was in no shape to say anything. He was hardly even conscious.

Akira was not sure if they saw him or even knew of his existence. Whatever the case, he was glad their focus was not on him. So he continued running away, trying his hardest not to be seen by the humans.

* * *

Pence's mom had been called to work, despite being her day off. So Pence and Tatsuya stayed over at the vacant apartment, bringing their digimon friends with them. Both of Tatsuya's parents had to work as well, but, surprisingly, Miyu was still home. On a Sunday. Usually she'd be out on a date by lunch time. And it was already past one. So instead of staying at Tatsuya's, they stayed at Pence's place.

They had the TV on, but they were too busy spending time with their new friends to pay much attention to the shows on. That is until the breaking news report of the digimon appearance in the Odaiba area. And that easily got their attention.

"It's Sincerity, isn't it?" Tatsuya asked, to no one in particular. He loved digimon, but even he understood that Sincerity took things too far.

"I think so," Daichi said. "They say the group seems to be led by a metalmamemon. I think it's Rizer."

The two kids looked at the little gear digimon after he spoke this. "Really?" Tatsuya asked. "Isn't he like a, uh..."

"General," Pence added. "But how could they have gotten out?"

"Well..." Daichi started. "We got to the real world." Saru nodded, though remained quiet. "But it was just her and I that made it through. How a small army could have gotten into the Human World is beyond me..."

"Through force," Tatsuya stated. "We may not be seeing the full army, here. They could have staged a much bigger assault in the Digital World, and these were the ones that made it through."

Pence was astonished. Tatsuya did not always seem to be the brightest kid on the block. But he could be just as clever as anyone when the situation demanded it. And it always helped when the subject was something he was passionate about, like digimon. "You're right," Pence said. "We probably only see the ones that made it through. The rest could still be fighting in the Digimon World."

Daichi looked over at Saru. They were the only ones who made it in their own group. Of over a dozen digimon striving to get into the Human World, they were the only successful ones.

"So, what should we do?" Tatsuya asked his friend.

"Do? We sit here and wait for it to blow over. Or to evacuate if need be."

"We aren't going to help?"

"How can we? We are just kids."

"The digidestined were just kids too, you know," Tatsuya countered.

"Yeah, but they were _chosen_, Tats. We are just... normal."

Tatsuya looked to the floor. He meant well. He felt the need to help, to take part. To be... adventurous. But just because a couple digimon show up on your doorstep does not mean you were chosen to save the world. Rogue digimon show up all the time in the Human World. And most of them go to children for support, mainly due to a very specific stigma. The digidestined were human kids. Many digimon wish they could be partnered to a digidestined, a human child. Not only does it guarantee a friend in need, but it gives the digimon the power to evolve faster, grow stronger. Digimon can be just as greedy as humans.

But there were some who seek out partners not because of the "power" aspect, but for the friendship one. That and to escape the limited confines of their own world.

The four calmed down a bit and all sat on Pence's couch, watching the news coverage. So far, evacuations were in progress for the districts affected. "So," Tatsuya asked. "Do you think they'll bring out those robots?"

"I think so," Pence replied.

"Robots?" Daichi asked, instantly intrigued.

"Yeah, Gears," Tatsuya said, using that nickname he used for Daichi. "They have these really cool robot suits called.. uh. E-something."

"EADS" Pence stated. Instead of saying each letter of the abbreviation, he pronounced it like a word with a long "e" sound. Like in the word "heeds" but without the "h" sound.

"Yeah, those!"

"Sounds.. interesting," Daichi said.

"Yeah," Pence started, "they are used by the army, but were originally designed by DigiCorp in order to counteract digimon appearances in the Human World. But I don't think they work very well in the Digital World."

"Oh..." The thought of humans making their own robotic machines was very interesting to Daichi. However, he did feel a bit bad that their reason for creation was to fight digimon.

"You know, I hope my mom will be okay," Pence said. His mom did work for DigiCorp, which was right in the middle of the conflict.

"Oh come on, that place is protected." Tatsuya understood now that letting the digimon know where Pence's mom worked was not the best idea. They might take it wrong. "She'll be fine, dude."

"If you say so."

* * *

"I'll take point," Marcus Haldberg said, transmitting to his fellow EADS pilots. There were three other suits in his squad, three lives for which he was responsible. He wanted this operation to go without a hitch. Three of the suits, including his own, were still attached to the hovercopter EADS dropship. The other suit was positioned on the top of a nearby building, awaiting orders. "After Ryo knocks those bitches out of the sky, we will engage. The dropship will take us as close as possible. Then I'll move on ahead, and you guys are to follow. Clear?"

"Got it, sir," the other two squad members said in unison. Ryo, the rooftop sniper remained quiet. He knew what he had to do.

The EADS, short for Encounter Assault and Defense Suits, were between 16 and 20 feet tall by most models. They were humanoid, with human like arms and legs and even had a head housing the sensory components of the suit. The human pilot resides in the torso area. Each suit was designed to be slick and slim, not clunky looking robots. Each head contained one black "eye" surrounded by a gray "iris" that was a little less than half the size of the head itself. On the back of each mech were two small thrusters. Not enough to keep them afloat in the air very long, but enough to allow each mech to "jump" over obstacles. Some models, like Marcus's, had additional thrusters running up the back of each leg and thrust verniers on the arms, giving more jumping power and evasive control.

Ryo's EADS, painted black with bits of gray, lay on the roof of the building on its belly, holding a large rifle equipped with a bi-pod. He aimed at one of the flying digimon, an airdramon. The very one that had Rizer at the reins. He would blast the airdramon out of the sky. Then he'd act as a long range support for the upcoming fight.

Marcus's EADS was painted primary red with bits of black on parts of the armor and at the joints. His other two squadmates' mechs were painted similarly, but with light blue instead of red. Each mech had the the Digimon Defense Corp insignia inscribed on their shoulders. DDC in aqua green letters inside a black circle.

"Ready when you are, Ryo," Marcus stated over the comm.

"Got ya," Ryo replied. His hand remained calm while his fingers wrapped tightly around the control stick. His index finger hovered over the trigger, waiting for the perfect shot. _Fire_. His finger twitched, using just enough pressure for the suit to recognize the action. The suit's own index finger flicked the trigger just as he did. Even with the auditory dampeners of the suit, the sound of the gunfire still rang in Ryo's ears. Just half a second later, the projectile hit its mark. The airdramon lurched back from the impact and began to fall. It clumsily drifted down and slowly started to twist in the air. Ryo could see a small figure jumping off the back of the dragon digimon. That had to be Rizer.

Instantly, the dropship began its course towards the two fallen digimon. The hovercopter positioned itself just a few blocks away and the three EADS jumped off, each landing with a thud.

"Alright men, weapons at the ready," Marcus commanded over the comm. Each of the suits grabbed the autocannon weapons mounted on their backs. They held their weapons in both hands and aimed forward as they slowly approached the block where Rizer fell, taking cover behind buildings as they advanced.

"Do you see him, Ryo?" Marcus asked over the comm.

"He disappeared behind the buildings in the seventh district. I have no line of sight. Should I change position?"

"No. We'll draw him out into the main street. Kent, do you seem him?"

"Not yet," Kent, the dropship pilot stated. "I'm circling around now for a better view."

A light blue orb of energy shot into the sky from the direction of the seventh district just as the hovercopter dropship turned around the corner of a particularly tall building. Kent had no time to react as the ball of energy slammed into the side of the dropship and erupted in a burst of light. The vehicle started spinning out of control in the air, falling closer and closer to the ground.

_Well there goes our ride home_, Ryo thought as he watched the dropship hit the ground through his scope.

"Damn..." Marcus murmured. "Advance!" This was it, the battle. Marcus, an American born citizen of Japan, flew through the EADS training and ended up getting his own squad. But that did not change the fact that none of them, with the exception of Ryo, had any real combat experience. EADS use in Real World wars was very uncommon and wars themselves were pretty rare in this day and age. EADS were primarily used for encounters with digimon. But rarely did dangerous digimon cross over to the Real World.

As skilled and trained as Marcus was, this was still his first real combat. And the same went for the pilots of the two situated on either side of him as he moved towards the seventh district. They moved at a much faster pace, quickly shrinking the gap.

"Keep in mind that the surrounding area is already evacuated," Marcus said to his squad mates. "But try to keep environmental damage to a minimum."

"We shall try," the pilot on his left, Shin Okuda stated.

"Got it, sir," the other pilot, Hiroshi stated.

"You hear me Ryo?" Marcus asked.

"Yes."

The three mechs stood against the side of a building, Hiroshi's mech closest to the edge on the right. They suspected that, judging by the blue orb's trajectory, Rizer was on the other side.

"When you are ready Hiroshi," Marcus stated.

Hiroshi nodded inside his suit, though of course Marcus could not see it. He hesitated for a moment, obviously nervous. Rizer was dangerous. But they had a job to do. Finally, his suit started moving, running sideways across the street next to the building while aiming into the wide district. There he saw Rizer, looking in the opposite direction.

Rizer was a member of the metalmamemon species of digimon. He was small for an ultimate level at around four feet tall, though he was a shining example of how size does not matter. The digimon was tough. His head was basically his body. This body had a face and connected to his limbs. Around his face was a strong metallic helmet. His right arm had been replaced with a large, energy cannon that was about as big as his body.

He aimed but did not fire. His job was to take cover behind the building on the opposite side of the street as well as take notice of Rizer's position. He submitted his suit's visual feed to Marcus, letting him see the situation before taking position behind the building across the street.

"Alright," Marcus stated. "We are all in position. Everybody clear on the plan?"

"Yes sir," Hiroshi and Shin stated. Ryo remained quiet, but Marcus knew he was listening.

"Okay, let's do this." Marcus activated the thrusters of his mech, allowing him to "jump" on top of the three story tall building he and Shin were hiding behind. Rizer spun around, hearing the loud eruption of the thrusters, and aimed his large arm cannon at Marcus. A beam of light blue energy fired.

Before landing firmly on the roof, Marcus activated the verniers to boost to the left, successfully dodging the attack, all the while firing his autocannon at the digimon. Most of the explosive shells missed, and those that did hit struck the strong, metal helm over the digimon's head.

Marcus's mech jumped down from the building to engage the enemy head on as Shin and Hiroshi peaked with their autocannons around the edges of their respective buildings, firing at Rizer. Most of the shots either hit the street or Rizer's incredibly durable metal helm, but some stray shots hit other buildings, making holes in houses and other buildings and littering the ground around them with debris.

"Be careful, you two!" Marcus yelled as he circled around the enemy, using short bursts from his thruster verniers to quicken his pace and heighten his evasion. The metalmamemon's gun could not keep up with him. After some time, Rizer decided to ignore Marcus altogether and aimed at Hiroshi's mech hiding behind cover of the building. An orb of blue energy materialized at the end of the barrel and began growing, building up even more energy.

"Alright, phase two," Marcus stated to his squad members.

"Good," Hiroshi said, disengaging from the building and running in the opposite direction. It turns out he was just in time. Rizer released that orb of energy. It exploded against the building taking a huge chunk of the foundation with it. The building started to collapse in on itself.

_Hell..._ Marcus could not have stopped Rizer from ruining the building, but it still made him curse himself. Already, the district had sustained a lot of property damage.

Shin had disengaged from his cover as well, fleeing along with Hiroshi. With the other two attackers out of the way, Rizer set his sights back on Marcus. Before the digimon could even fire his destructive cannon, Marcus pulled out of the fight, "jumping" his mech completely over the 3 story building that formerly served as his cover. Rizer followed him, making a phenomenal leap for such a small digimon and landing on top of the building. He caught the tail end of Marcus's suit flee behind the cover of other other buildings in the next district.

Then he felt a searing pain in his right eye and was pushed back, knocking him off of the roof of the building.

* * *

"You say you've lost your wallet?" the museum guard asked.

"Uh.. yes," Shero replied. The East City Museum was a sight to behold. It glorified the journey of the digidestined, mostly focusing on the Original Eight, though there were a couple exhibits focusing only on the second generation and one exhibit dedicated to the other, minor digidestined around the world that had come across partners of their own. The main room of the museum was quite large and housed most of the exhibits. Various people walked around the exhibits, following tour guides or just exploring on their own, learning about those chosen to save the world. There were few digimon among the people in the museum. Humans got in for free, but digimon had to pay a hefty fee. And their jobs gave them very few extra funds.

There were several pictures of the digidestined around, some were real and others were artist's renderings of key events of their journey. One image displayed one of their first battles: Takeru's Angemon versus the deadly Devimon. Angemon's chosen partner was in the background, a worried look strewn across his face as if he could see the fate that would befall his digimon partner. Another portrait displayed Taichi and Yamato cheering on their partners as they fought against the towering VenomMyotismon in the Human World. One portrait that really stuck out among the rest, though, was one located in the second generation of digidestined section. It showed a pale, black haired individual with an insidious grin on his face. Under the portrait was the name "Oikawa" and a biography following explaining his role in masterminding the events of the Second Conflict.

There were also a few artifacts from that time around the museum. Taichi's display housed the legendary "leader goggles" hanging above his personal tag and crest of courage. There were displays for each of the Original Eight and one display for the second generation as well as a few miscellaneous displays littered around the place. One held the first version of the digivice, a blue octagonal-esque figure with a screen in the middle, three buttons, and a small white antenna on the side.

"Where did you lose your wallet, little guy?" the guard asked the boy, snapping him out of his sightseeing.

"Well.. I'm not sure. I think it was... stolen." Shero was lying, of course. He did have a wallet, but he left it at the agumon hideout just in case the guard saw his full back pocket. Despite all of the artifacts in the displays, there was only one guard patroling the main room of the museum. There were very few robbery attempts since the museum opened.

Shero felt a little nervous despite the fact that it would be hard to connect him to the agumon group if they were caught. Which was a fact that Kahn told him at their meeting to convince him to help out.

Their goal was to steal Taichi's tag and crest. To Shero's surprise, though, their motivation was not to sell the artifact in some illicit way. It actually held sentimental value to the group. "We believe that the crest of courage belongs to us," Kahn had told them. "Not those greedy humans to display in some dumb museum. Reks says we are entitled to it by our very birthright as agumon."

Shero decided to just go along with it. He would distract the guard while they took the artifact. When the group showed him their plans, he was surprised at their preparations. They had somehow obtained blueprints for the museum, locating a secret entrance to the museum through the roof located behind the museum. This entrance was initially designed to be a secondary entrance to the museum from when it was to be a two story building. There would have been a staircase up to the entrance, allowing two separate tours through the museum. The entrance was built before the plans for the second story were scrapped. The workers just built the roof around the entrance.

During the planning phase, they got a hold of a portable ladder just the right size for the museum. They took some time to observe the place and found that this secret entrance was padlocked. So through some shady underground dealings, they acquired some cutters. Sure, they could have their fiery breath to force it open, but that would bring too much attention to themselves. As would tearing at the door with their claws.

"Well... Where were you when you noticed it was gone?" the guard asked.

"Uh... Over this way," he said, heading in the direction of the second generation exhibit, located at the opposite side of the museum as Taichi's display. The guard seemed a bit annoyed by this petty little task, but followed anyway. This was a relief to Shero. His part of the plan was going along well. He hoped that the others were doing just as well.

* * *

"Keep it steady, you two," Reks said. The black agumon and Kahn, the gray one, were gradually climbing up the ladder together. The two other agumon friends, Hoshi and Hisake, stood on either side of the ladder to keep it steady. "Steady... Steady..." Reks murmured as they continued to climb upwards. When Reks reached the top, he grabbed onto a ledge just above the top of the ladder and pulled him up. He carefully balanced himself on the narrow ledge and looked down at Kahn, who was situated at the top of the ladder.

"Alright, cutters," Reks said. Kahn pulled off a pair of bolt cutters that had been slung around his shoulder on a strap. He then handed them to the black agumon.

"Here you go, guy," Kahn said.

"Thanks." He grabbed each side of the cutters, opening it up, and latched it on to the lock. Then he strained as he pressed the sides together until the lock broke off with a load metallic snap. The lock rolled off the ledge and fell to the ground. He then pulled on the door handle. He had to force it a bit. The door was in severe misuse and had gotten stuck in the frame.

"Okay, door is open," Reks said. "Let's go, Kahn. You two," he pointed to Hoshi and Hisake. "Keep watch."

Kahn and Reks walked through the door, closing it behind them. The door led to a narrow strip of floor attached to the frame that circled around the higher walls of the museum. This was going to be added on to to make an actual floor for the second story, but they just left a circular ledge hugging the walls of the museum.

Luckily, the Taichi display (as well as many others) were located right next to a wall. Unfortunately, it was a quarter of the way around the room. That meant that Kahn and Reks would have to carefully walk around the ledge without falling off. They weren't too high off the ground, just about fifteen feet. But if they fell they would be spotted and cause a commotion. That, of course, would not be good.

They side stepped their way across the ledge, being as careful as they could. "That kid is doing a good job," Reks whispered.

Kahn noticed Shero at the opposite end of the museum, talking to the guard. Shero made sure that the guard was facing away from the digimon while he talked to him. They slowly but steadily made their way around the museum until they were just above the Taichi display. Behind the glass case full of artifacts was an enlarged picture of the digidestined leader, circa First Conflict. Many of the humans passing by thought how inspiring it was that someone so young was able to lead a group of children to save the world.

Reks was waiting for those people to go away. They had to grab the crest when no one was looking. And they did not really have all the time in the world. Shero could only distract the guard for so long.

"I think they are about to leave," Reks whispered, pointing towards a couple humans starting to turn away from the exhibit. "Get ready."

* * *

"I hope they turn out okay," Hoshi, the blue-striped agumon said. They each took a seat on the ground beside the ladder. "Now what?"

"Uh, well we guard this place," Hisake said.

"Oh.. right." Hoshi looked down at his claws while he twiddled them between each other. "Why are we given the boring job?"

"Well... Reks is the strong one. And Kahn volunteered to help him out with the dangerous job."

"Oh yeah, right."

"And just what are you two doing?" The two digimon looked up to see a human police officer standing in front of them, arms crossed.

"Oh, hey..." Hoshi said.

"Officer!" Hisake exclaimed, standing up. Hoshi followed suit. "And how are you doing today?"

"That doesn't answer my question. What is going on here?"

"Oh DigiCorp business," Hisake said confidently.

"You two digimon work with DigiCorp?" the officer asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course," Hisake continued, quickly concocting a reliable story to tell. "The top part of the museum has to be cleaned up every month."

"Agumon tasked with cleaning?" the officer asked. "And what are you two doing down here instead of up there."

"Oh no, sir. We aren't the cleaners."

"We're not?" Hoshi asked, trying his hardest to follow the story.

"No. Don't mind my friend, he's new. The cleaning digimon are up there already, scrubbing the top part of the museum. We are here to make sure no one sneaks into the museum while the top door is unlocked."

"So, you two are bodyguards?"

"Of course!" He struck a pose that he thought was intimidating, holding one claw up in front of his face and standing with his legs spread outwards. Hoshi noticed what his friend was doing and followed suit, striking a pose of his own.

"I see..." After figuring the officer was satisfied, they went back to standing straight up. "But I have one question."

"Yes?" Hisake asked.

The officer reached down to the ground and picked up the ruined lock that was formerly attached to the door. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Oh..." Hoshi murmured.

"Well," Hisake quickly jumped in, "sometimes they forget the combination to the lock. Those cleaners aren't the brightest digimon of the bunch. So they brought some cutters to get inside."

"Hmm..." The two agumon were nervous while the officer inspected them with his eyes, but they tried to keep their composure. "Alright, carry on as you were."

"Phew... That was close," Hoshi said after the guard had walked away.

"You're telling me."

"You're such a good liar, Hisake."

"Thanks. Let's just hope that the others are doing so well."

* * *

After everyone had left the display and they were sure that no one was looking in their direction, Reks hung on the ledge by his feet while holding on to Kahn's legs with his hands. Just as they had planned, this living rope was just long enough to reach the top of the glass display. Holding Kahn steady was not too daunting a task for Reks. He was by far the strongest of the group. But he was not sure how long he'd be able to hold on to the ledge with just his feet.

Kahn slid one of his finger nails around the glass in a large circle, chiseling as much glass out as he could. Then he tapped at the center of the circle over and over, trying not to make too much noise. "Hurry up," Reks said. He was watching the crowd and saw one of the humans noticing him. The human motioned to his friend to look and point at the sight.

"Don't sweat it, guy..." One more good, hard tap and the circular piece of glass fell through. "Got it."

"Alright, now hurry up and grab it."

Kahn grabbed the crest and pulled it up. He stared at it in his claws in awe and wonder. In his hands was the crest of courage, a source of power for the leader of the Original Eight.

"What's that?" one of the humans said. Kahn looked up and noticed that a large crowd of people were looking at them.

"Oh hell..." Kahn said as Reks began pulling him up. The guard had turned his head and noticed them. Their time had run out.

* * *

"What is going on over there?" the guard stated as he reached for something at his side. In his hands now was a small, vaguely rectangular device. He grabbed a part of it that folded out into a kind of handle or hilt with a trigger on it and a button. After pressing the button, the rectangle began transforming, unfolding and twisting. The parts were reassembled in an instant and what once was a vague mechanical rectangle was now a small rifle about two and a half feet long.

The guard held the rifle with both hands, taking aim at the two agumon.

_Oh no..._ Shero thought. He had to think of something and quick, knowing all too well what the guard was aiming at. He spun around quickly and clumsily fell backwards, pretending to lose his footing in the commotion. Just as the guard was about to fire at Kahn's gray head, he tumbled to the floor with the boy. When he hit the ground, the rifle fired. A short beam of light red, transparent energy shot out of the barrel, hitting the museum wall.

"Oh I'm sorry, sir," Shero said, getting up. _Stupid, _he thought to himself. _That shot could have hit one of the innocent people here. I can't be that reckless... But there was nothing else I could do._ The rifle the guard carried was a weapon designed specifically for the Digital World. There were some Real World technology that did not work in the Digital World, such as the hovercopters and the EADS. But some technology designed for the Digital World was the same way. These rifles had no effect in the Real World because it was designed to damage pure digital substances. Everything in the Digital World was digitized material. The downside with this digimon countering technology was that these rifles affected humans as well. For when a human travels to the Digital World, he becomes digitized, too.

The guard quickly got back up, ignoring Shero and reorienting himself. He immediately took aim while moving quickly away from Shero either to avoid hurting him in the combat or to make sure the kid did not knock him down again. Shero was not entirely sure which.

The two digimon had already gotten close to the exit. Shero knocking the guard over gave them enough time to scurry around the wall. Kahn was clear and through the exit by the time the guard got up. But Reks was still in clear view.

Shero knew that, unless he intervened, Reks would be shot. But if he tried running at the guard to knock him over, his cover would be blown and he'd be arrested. The fact that he was not a registered human citizen of East City did not help matters at all.

He had to think of something and fast. He tried searching through his head through an option, a way to stop the guard without compromising himself.

But he was too late. He was not fast enough. In his hesitation, the pause where he searched his head for a solution, the guard fired.

Reks was almost to the exit when the beam hit his side. He spun around, falling off of the ledge. When he had spun all the way around in mid air, he grabbed on to the side of the ledge.

"No!" Shero yelled. "Why are you shooting him?" The guard looked over at Shero, giving Reks enough time to pull himself back upwards, jumping onto the ledge and running through the exit. When he aimed back at the exit, Reks was gone.

Shero made a run for it, heading straight for the door. When the guard caught wind of what was going on, it was too late. Shero was gone.

* * *

"Good job, Ryo," Marcus said. The plan worked. They had lured the digimon out and their sniper scored a perfect shot on one of the few unarmored parts of Rizer's body: his eye.

"That was the last rogue digimon, wasn't it?" Hiroshi asked. They had been keeping in touch with the other DigiCorp operations trying to fence in or eliminate the rogue digimon. Rizer was, formerly, the only one not accounted for.

"True," Marcus said. "But we need to confirm the kill."

"On it," Hiroshi replied, moving forward with his mech back to the seventh district. But when he was just a block away, he heard Ryo cautioning him to stop.

"Wait, I see something," the sniper said. He could see a little hand grabbing on to the edge of the 3 story building Rizer had been shot off of. Then he watched as the little digimon pulled himself up over the edge and aimed his cannon. His right eye was forced shut, but other than that he seemed fine. The shot had little effect.

"Oh hell," Marcus yelled, readying his gun. His other squad members did the same, firing at the ultimate level digimon.

Ryo tried quickly to aim a good shot, knowing all too well that that charging barrel was pointed at him. But just as he aligned a shot to the digimon's other eye, Rizer unleashed another explosive blue orb of energy at him. He quickly rolled his suit out of the direct line of fire so that he wouldn't take the full brunt of the attack.

The orb hit the building and instantly exploded. Ryo's EADS took little damage from the explosion, but he was at risk to fall from the building. The top floors were collapsing fast due to the explosion. Though his suit was equipped with jump jets he was still hundreds of feet in the air. The jets were only for short bursts, hence the name "jump jets," and constant use overheated them. The fall would be devastating to the mech. At the least, it would cripple the suit. And at its worst, the fall would kill the pilot.

Ryo's suit pulled itself up, standing up straight. He quickly looked for the closest building and planned to use the jump jets to travel to it before falling. But just before initiating the jump, the part of the roof he was standing on crumbled underneath him. His suit began to fall.

Only a minor setback. He did not fall far yet and had more than enough energy needed to get to the next roof. He immediately activated his jump jets, heading to the next, slightly shorter building.

Shortly after activating his jets, Rizer struck his suit a beam of energy hit the suit's right arm, tearing it off and making his suit spin in the air. He was off course now and losing control. There was no way he'd make it to the other building's roof now. He had to improvise.

He used his verniers and jets sparingly, positioning himself straight upwards in the air and beside the building that he used for a sniping position earlier. His suit's remaining three limbs reached forward to press against the building, scraping into the side of it as he fell. Windows shattered and metal was bent and broken apart as he tried to slow his approach, doing considerable damage to the already damaged building. Then, just a couple stories above the ground, he activated his jump jets, slowing his descent considerably. The suit's legs settled firmly on the ground, completely intact. Though he had lost his long cannon and his suit's right arm, he was still very much alive and uninjured.

* * *

Marcus was too late to stop Rizer from firing at Ryo. He used his jump jets and verniers to boost himself forward, jumping up on top of the building Rizer was on. While in mid-air, he threw his autocannon down to the ground. Then his suit's right arm reached for something mounted on the left shoulder. It was a handle that, after grabbing it, extended. A sharp blade folded forward from the hilt of the weapon and the edge began glowing an orange red hue.

The heat blade was the standard melee weapon equipped to the EADS. It was usually stored in the shoulder of the suit, though the pilot is free to make modifications to the mounting location. After equipping, it extends to form a sword with a blade about the size of the suit's forearm. The edge of the sword is super heated, making it a very formidable weapon. A small energy cable from the suit's hand attaches to the hilt of the sword, feeding it energy which powers the edge.

Right now, Marcus had the sword raised, gripping it with both hands as he descended, ready to bring it down on Rizer. When the digimon noticed this, he brought his gun up to parry the sword. Marcus engaged the digimon head on, giving Ryo enough time to safely get to the ground without Rizer's energy cannon bothering him.

And to both Marcus's and Rizer's surprise, the sword had left a mark on the digimon's arm cannon. The blade could penetrate that armor. Rizer quickly disengaged, jumping backwards and aiming his cannon right at Marcus for a short burst. Marcus activated his verniers to dodge the blast, jumping to the left off of the roof of the building and landing on the ground.

The digimon was small, especially compared to the EADS. He was around a third the size of the mech. But Marcus was sure it would be more than able to hold its own against them. It was still an ultimate after all.

While this was taking place, Hiroshi and Shin noticed that the heat blade was effective. They placed their cannons on a mount on the back of the right hip of their suits. Then they took their swords off of their shoulder mounts, activating them. The blades retracted and heated up as the two EADS jumped forward, landing on the roof to engage Rizer.

Rizer noticed their approach and aimed his powerful cannon, firing at Shin's mech. The pilot fed more energy to his jets to dodge upwards out of the way, but the beam of energy still managed to hit his suit's lower left leg, taking it off from the knee down. Shin used as much thrust as he could without overheating it to safely land his suit behind cover of a nearby two story house.

Just as Hiroshi's suit landed on the roof, Rizer had already took up aim and fired. Hiroshi was not able to react fast enough to dodge the attack. The blast hit the torso directly, knocking the suit over the side of the building. Hiroshi's EADS landed on the ground on it's back. It's torso was severely damaged. The armor's out layer had been melted aside and the interior structure had caved in.

"Hiroshi!" Marcus yelled. His suit was still on the ground while the action was taking place. And he saw his squad mate's suit fall, hitting the ground. "Hiroshi!"

"What's going on?" Shin asked. He could not see what was going on sitting behind the house. And he could hardly move his mech with one leg.

"Hiroshi's been hit," Marcus said, feeding power to his jump jets. He immediately activated his verniers in the air, dodging the blast from Rizer's cannon that he predicted would come. "I'm not getting any response from him." He thrusted forward, landing back on the roof of the building. He could tell that all of this fighting on the building's roof was putting a lot of pressure on it's structure. At any moment, it would collapse.

"Ryo, where are you?" Marcus asked while striking forward with is blade. Rizer jumped backwards to evade. Marcus quickly swung again, not showing any restraint. The digimon brought up his arm cannon to parry the blow. He could see the blade searing through the metal, leaving another mark on the cannon.

"I'm heading to district seven, now," he said. Right after getting back on the ground, he started moving towards the others. While his suit ran, he jumped over small buildings in his way to get there faster. Other, taller buildings forced him to run around them.

"Any weapons?" He kept striking at the digimon over and over, forcing Rizer to parry each blow as opposed to aiming the cannon at him for a point blank attack.

"No. I lost my long cannon... and my right arm."

"Okay, go to Hiroshi's EADS and try to recover him. I'll keep Rizer busy."

"What about me?" Shin asked. "I can peak around the corner of this house and give you some covering fire."

"No." Rizer had finally gotten a shot off, breaking out of the melee and firing. Marcus activated his verniers, getting out of the way just in time. The beam grazed his suit's left arm, but there was no real damage done. "Get out of your EADS and get out of here. Go towards the evac point." He boosted forward and jabbed at the enemy digimon. Instead of parrying again, he jumped to the side, falling off of the building.

"Are we... retreating?" Shin asked.

"Yes, we are outgunned. I have the only fully operable EADS and I don't know how much longer I can last." Marcus jumped down to the ground just ten feet away from Rizer, readying his blade.

"I'm here," Ryo said, running up to Hiroshi's fallen suit.

"Alright, get Hiroshi out of there." Marcus sidestepped, dodging a burst from Rizer's cannon. Then he boosted forward, his sword slashing against Rizer's helmet. The digimon did not have enough time after his last shot to parry the attack. It left an indention in the metal where it slashed, but luckily for the digimon it did not quite pierce through the metal to his skin underneath.

Ryo used his suit's remaining hand to carefully pull apart Hiroshi's torso. To keep Hiroshi's suit on the ground, he placed his right foot against the shoulder of the fallen suit. After pulling the torso off, he inspected the pilot inside. Hiroshi was bloody and either unconscious or possibly dead. He could not tell which. But regardless, he picked the pilot up with his suit's left hand, being very careful not to apply too much pressure and potentially hurt him.

"I got him," Ryo stated.

"Alright, take him to the evac site. I'll meet you guys there." Marcus stabbed forward again. The blade slid inside the side of Rizer's cannon. The digimon immediately pulled his arm back, forcing the sword out of the mech's hand. Now Marcus had no weapon to defend himself. His suit's left arm shot down at the little digimon, hitting him square in the helmet and forcing him into the 3 story building the were fighting on earlier. The force normally would not be enough to bring the foundation of the building down to the ground. But the structure of the building had been severely damaged with all the fighting that took place. Within moments, the metalmamemon was buried inside the rubble of the building.

Marcus sighed, not wanting to know how much it would cost the city to fix this mess. He hoped they had some pretty good Digimon Insurance.

Before Rizer could get a chance to dig himself out of the mess, Marcus had started heading towards the evac point. He knew now the threat that this digimon presented to them. An ultimate level was too much for four inexperienced EADS pilots to handle.

* * *

"So what happened?" Dragon asked, leaning back in his seating and sipping on his tea.

"Well..." The speaker was a young dark haired man wearing a black suit and glasses. Dragon was in his room at the East City DigiCorp hotel. Even sovereign had to stay at the hotel in a normal room, keeping a low profile. The public knew of their existence, but most people did not know what they looked like. And the less the public knew, the better.

"Go ahead, speak up." The Dragon looked very comfortable in his recliner, taking sips of his tea in between the exchange of words. He felt that the presence of this DigiCorp agent should not impede on his relaxation.

Dragon's voice was calm and not intimidating in any way. But there was something about the way the man presented himself that seemed unlike what he pictured a sovereign to be. "All of the attackers in the Digital World have been apprehended... or killed in the conflict. Same for the ones that made it through to the Real World. Except..."

"Rizer?"

"Uh, yes. They sent some of the most skilled pilots against him, but he single handedly took out one of the EADS and crippled two others."

"Any casualties?"

"Yes. One of the pilots suffered fatal wounds. The other three got away injury free, but they had to abandon two of the mechs."

"I see." The Dragon was only being told this to brief him on the situation. At any time, the sovereign could intervene in the conflict, ordering around the workings of any DigiCorp operations. But normally the operations were up to those in charge unless the situation warranted an intervention. "Did the pilots have any combat experience?"

"Well, no... But they did very well in the simulations. And they were facing an ultimate. An ultimate hasn't crossed over to the Real World in decades. They were... unprepared."

"You don't have to be nervous, agent. It's not like I'm going to scold you for something you had no hand in."

The agent bowed slightly then nodded. "Yes sir."

"Is that all?"

"Well, no. I was also told to tell you about an incident that happened an hour ago in East City."

"Yes?"

"Well, someone stole an artifact from the museum."

"Really? During tour hours?" This seemed to interest the sovereign more than the Real World battle did.

"Yes, sir. A group of agumon stole the crest of courage from the Taichi display."

Dragon's eyes showed a bit of shock, though of course the agent could not see them behind the sun glasses. "Very strange."

"Yeah. Joke's on them though, I guess."

"Sure is." None of the artifacts in the museum were real, though the public thought they were. They were all fake, complete fabrications. The crests especially since the physical crests no longer existed, according to the DigiCorp files on the digidestined. "I wonder why they would steal that. I'm sure the goggles would have sold for more money."

"The other agents think that the crest held sentimental value to them," the agent stated. The Dragon was not sure if he even realized that that bit about the goggles was a joke since the agent did not laugh. Did everyone take everything a sovereign said so seriously? "Maybe Sincerity was behind it."

"I doubt it," Dragon replied. "If they were involved, they would have taken the crest of sincerity, wouldn't they? No no... I think they took it because they are agumon. And Taichi's partner happened to be an agumon."

"Oh yes, of course," the agent stated, realizing that this man must have been a sovereign. He seemed to have above average deducting skills.

"Is there anything else for you to tell me?"

"Oh no, that's all, sir."

"Alright. Well, I hope you have a nice day, agent."

"Oh, you too," the agent said while giving another short bow. He then turned around and left the hotel room.

Dragon took another sip of his tea, looking ahead at nothing in particular.

"Something on your mind?"

"There's always something on my mind, Cale," Dragon said. Any onlooker would not be sure if the light magenta haired bodyguard had been cleverly hiding out of sight somewhere in the hotel room or had just appeared out of nowhere.

"Touche, Sovereign."

"You know you and the others don't have to be so official. You can call me Yoshio. I'm sure you, Simon, and Monty referred to the last Dragon by name."

Simon and Monty, his other two bodyguards, were elsewhere in the hotel. Monty was on the first floor, watching every newcomer to the hotel carefully. Simon stayed in the elevator. Every time someone walked in, he'd politely say "Oh go on ahead to your floor, I'll wait." Cale stayed in Dragon's room to keep watch over him.

"So what do you think of this situation?" Dragon asked his bodyguard.

"They'll most likely catch Rizer soon. He is all alone now in the Real World."

"No, about the theft."

"At the museum? I don't know. I guess... A few digimon looking for an artifact to fence. Unless they really did want that crest for some kind of sentimental reason."

"I doubt a few digimon would steal from the museum just to gain some extra money. They wanted that crest because they feel like they are connected to Taichi due to their heritage."

"Would you consider digimon to have a heritage?"

"You wouldn't?" Dragon asked, finally looking over at her.

"That's... not what I meant. I just didn't think there was a human that thought that way. I mean, digimon aren't raised like human are."

"Well, Cale, I'm a little more empathetic than the average human."

"So what are we going to do about this?"

"Nothing." The sovereign looked ahead of him again, about to take a sip of his tea until he realized his cup was empty.

"Nothing?"

"The crest was a fake anyway. Let them bask in their 'victory.' What would it hurt?"

"But... They might try attempting it again if you just let them go."

"And steal another two cent replica?"

"But they could spread panic to the population."

"I really doubt that they'll try this stunt again. It seems to me they were only aiming for Taichi's crest. But this case does... intrigue me. I'll check the security camera feed tomorrow." He picked up his tea cup again and tried taking a sip. Lost in his thoughts, he had forgotten that the cup was empty.

"Want me to give you some more tea, Dragon?"

"No no, I can get it. And call me Yoshio."

Then the sovereign got up and poured him some more tea.

* * *

Reks was in bad shape after the museum heist. His injury pained him, though there was no real mark on his body. Just a slight deterioration of digital material on his lower back, where the beam hit him. It was deteriorating slowly, but it would spread to the rest of his body if left unchecked. And he knew he could not go to a hospital. They would know that that injury was from one of DigiCorp's weapons.

But he did know a guy that could help him.

After running out of the museum, Shero ran around to the back to see his agumon friends. Reks was injured and could hardly hold himself up. He gave the crest to Hoshi and Hisake, telling them to go straight to the hideout. Then he asked Shero and Kahn to help bring him to a friend of his.

Of course, Shero agreed to help. He thought that this was his fault for not acting fast enough.

"How much longer, guy?" Kahn asked. He and Shero were on either side of Reks, holding him up and helping him walk. Due to how much shorter the digimon was compared to him, Shero had to crouch down in order to help him. They had been walking for nearly an hour, taking the long way around by going down alleyways and backroads to keep them out of sight.

"My friend is close," Reks said.

"Who is he?" Shero asked.

"A shamamon I met during my... agent days."

Shero looked over a the digimon, wide-eyed. "You were an agent?"

"Yeah... I couldn't just live the life of other digimon, doing boring, routine jobs. I'm programmed to do more than just pick up bricks. But... I felt that I was betraying my people. Especially when I had to do jobs that went against other digimon."

"Oh wow.... Did you know about this, Kahn?"

Kahn shook his head to Shero's question. Reks had never mentioned it to him. Though, honestly, he had just joined their group a week earlier.

Shero and Kahn were unsure as to what to say. They understood where Reks was coming from. But they just could not find the words to his statement. So they just kept walking, guiding the digimon to his friend.

* * *

Miyu lay down on the couch, her phone attached to her ear. She was chatting with Naomi, one of her many girlfriends. "No, I don't think he knows yet." She was referring to her current boyfriend, Ichigo. And about whether or not he knew that Miyu had been dating Jou. "No, I don't know who I'm going to stay with," Miyu said, responding to another of her friend's statements.

The door to the apartment opened up and Miyu's mom walked in. "Hello, honey."

"Oh hey mom. Oh sorry Naomi, my mom just walked in."

"Do you know where Tatsuya is?" her mom asked while putting some grocery bags on the counter. She started taking each of the groceries out to put them up in the kitchen.

"Oh, he's over at Pence's place."

"Oh okay. Can you go over there and ask him what he wants me to cook for supper tonight? It's his turn to decide."

"Sure." Phone still attached to her ear, she got up off the couch and walked into the hallway, heading for Pence's apartment. "Hold on a second, Naomi." She opened the door. "What do you want for supper Tats-- wha...?"

She stopped talking when she had the door completely opened and saw the two boys sitting on the floor with... what appeared to be a green monkey and some gear looking thing creature. Pence and Tatsuya were speechless, eyes wide open and jaw dropped as far as they can go. The gear had a surprised look on his mechanical face as well while the monkey just kind of glanced over at Miyu. Then calmly looked back at the TV like nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

"Uh... Naomi, I'll call you back."

* * *

**About Mecha**

I want to go ahead and let my readers know this: **THIS IS NOT GUNDAM MEETS DIGIMON!** So don't worry. I say this because I'm sure there are people out there who might read this and think "What the crap? I didn't know this was a mecha digimon story." It's not, despite the mech focus in the chapter (I actually didn't know that the mech segments would take up so many pages of this chapter). I am a big fan of mechs, but that's not why I added them into the story.

When I started thinking about this story, I knew that I would explore what might happen if humans got directly involved in the defense against digimon. You hardly saw humans directly fighting digimon in the show. But realistically, humans would most likely fight back against a digimon threat. So the EADS was invented.

I thought that just using conventional tanks or other modern day weapons against a digimon would not be very efficient. Many digimon would easily be able to avoid the tank's cannon. And a tank isn't maneuverable enough to avoid attacks from a digimon. A weapon against digimon would have to be adaptable. And able to face toe to toe against a digimon. A mech is a variable type of weapon, able to equip various kinds of weapons. The mech is much more maneuverable than a mere tank, able to dodge attacks easier and effectively use cover like a human soldier. And a mech can attack in close quarters combat, something many digimon are able to do and would use to their advantage against vehicles meant for long range. Like tanks.

So don't worry. This is not Gundam meets Digimon. The mechs are just a part of the world and can only conceivably play a part in the Real World segments. Due to the nature of the Digital World in my story, most complicated Real World machinery just doesn't work in the Digital World. They have to adapt them to the Digital World, making Digital versions of them. Mechs are just too complicated to emulate in the Digital World, relying on advanced programing just to keep them upright. So if the aspect of the mecha genre colliding with Digimon is worrying you, don't think too much on it. The EADS are just another difference this world has over our own reality.

**Another note on names**

I was going to go with the original Japanese naming order (i.e. surname first, like Kamiya Taichi instead of Taichi Kamiya). There is even evidence of this in the prologue, where Mimi and Miyako (Yolie in the dub) is said with last name first. But I decided against it because I'm used to the English naming order. And this story is, well, in English despite it being about mostly Japanese people. I also haven't been using any Japanese honorifics, such as -chan or -sensei. The reason is that I'm just not used to them. I know what they mean, but I don't really think about them when I write. So sorry for those out there who love the honorifics and feel like every fan fic about an anime should have them. If you really want honorifics in my fic, you can always just copy the whole story onto your computer and insert them yourselves as you see fit..... I'm sure that'd be a good use of your time.

**Adventure 0X Terms**

Cannons – Though the handheld weaponry used by the EADS in this chapter are referred to as "cannons," they are really more like rifles in appearance. The size and caliber of the barrels technically label them as cannons, though. The autocannon works much like that of an automatic rifle, just at an EADS scale. And the long cannon, used by Ryo, works much like a sniper rifle. Not really a term, but I wanted to go ahead and include this note here.

EADS – Encounter Assualt and Defense Suit. These are usually around 15 feet tall, robotic suits designed to combat Digimon. They are able to equip several kinds of handheld weaponry as well as mount other kinds of weapons on the frame itself such as missile launchers. The type of suit that Marcus and his squad use in this chapter are called "Jackals," though there are other variants as well. The Jackal is described in more detail below.

Jackal – The Jackal stands 15 and a half feet tall. It is not quite as well equipped as other EADS and is less expensive. Standard weaponry includes a handheld cannon, such as the autocannon or the long cannon, and a heat blade. Hiroshi and Shin piloted a DCS-15E model, the standard Jackal. Marcus and Ryo, on the other hand, piloted a more costly DCS-15M, an updated and more maneuverable model sporting extra verniers and a slightly slimmer frame, though keeping most of the armor intact.

I wasn't quite able to mention the type of suit that the pilots used in the chapter. Basically... I forgot to and didn't really want to just add it in now. It'll be mentioned in the next chapter, though, and more suit types will be shown as the Real World arc progresses.

Original Eight – This, of course, refers to the original eight digidestined. The reason why it is Eight and not Seven (truth be told, Kari didn't come in until halfway through the series) is because they were all meant to be digidestined at the time. And, in the perspective of the general public, they only really saw what happened during the Real World and the climactic battle in the finale. So the public only initially knows what happens around the time that Kari had joined the team.

**Adventure 0X Trivia**

I was actually going to wait a couple chapters, but due to the long wait I'm gonna go ahead and put in a trivia segment in this chapter. I had always planned to put in a trivia segment every few chapters because I love reading trivia about different works. And thought maybe I wasn't alone. Of course, you don't need to read any of these facts to understand the story so, just like the rest of the extras section, this is optional.

1) Though many of you probably noticed this, each chapter has a title drop. Every chapter name is stated by a character in the story. I just thought that this would be a nice little gimmick to experiment with. Some of the names of the chapters I go ahead and think of in advance. Others I don't have a name for and actually just look through the chapter itself to find a good phrase stated by the characters. The naming gimmick stems from the fact that I didn't really want any cliched or just boring chapter names. For instance "Chapter 1 – The Beginning." It just kind of sounds... bland.

2) The first chapter's title, Tomorrow, actually has more significance than just being a title drop. It was intentionally called Tomorrow (before I even thought of using the title drop gimmick) because in my opinion the real story starts in Chapter 2 (and I knew this ahead of time). And Chapter 2 takes place the day after the events of Chapter 1. So it was like very subtle foreshadowing telling the readers that Tomorrow is when the action starts, not Today. This was actually referenced in the preview for chapter 2, where I say "Tomorrow comes".

3) One of the hardest parts so far of this story is finding names for all of the characters. There are a lot of characters for just a few chapters (and there will be plenty to come), but the amount of characters isn't the main problem. It's the fact that most of these characters are Japanese. And as much as I love anime, I'm not an expert on Japanese names. Occasionally, I'll look up names with meanings that actually fit the character or fit their themes. Other times, I just find random names from lists online or even the credits pages of Japanese video games. And another annoyance is the fact that some of these named characters are just minor characters that either won't be seen again or won't be seen much (like the Digi Portal operators). But I do manage.

4) Shero was actually the first character I had envisioned even though he doesn't show up until Chapter 2. In my earliest ideas of the storylines, he was going to be heavily focused upon with the other characters as minor characters. But... then I started to flesh out the other characters. And even some characters who were initially supposed to be minor characters gradually get more fleshed out. Now how the story has been going in my head, there is no main character. Not the orphan Shero, not the innocent Shou, not the adventurous Tatsuya or the curious Pence or the mysterious Dragon. Or of course the newly introduced Marcus. In a way, they are all main characters, all a big part of the storyline. They all have a storyline to tell. And one day... their paths will converge.

That's all on the trivia. I hope it has interested someone at least... I'll post another trivia segment in a few chapters. Now... onto the preview!

**Chapter 4 Preview: **Uh oh... Miyu has found out about her brother's secret. He managed to keep it for a WHOLE day. How will she react to this? Also, a bit more of Reks past is revealed as he is reunited with one of his old agent contacts, Marcus contemplates the harsh realities of real combat, and Akira tries to reunite with Shou.

Well that's all. Sorry again for the long wait. But now I'm more determined to keep this story up. I hope those who've actually read it have enjoyed it so far. And can't wait to get the next chapter in : P.


End file.
